A team of Haryana government’s anti-corruption bureau (ACB) arrested a state health department assistant from the civil surgeon’s office in Gurugram while allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹3.25 lakh from a diagnostic centre owner to issue him a no objection certificate (NOC) on Monday, said officials on Tuesday.
The suspect, Subhash Sharma, 43, was posted at the civil surgeon office in Sector 38 and was handling a file related to Atrium diagnostics located on Golf Course Road.
According to ACB officials, Atrium diagnostics centre’s owner had sold his establishment to Alfa Diagnostics for which he had filed an application at the civil surgeon office on October 31.
A senior ACB official said the deputy civil surgeon, who is the nodal officer for such centres under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, was tasked with processing the file.
“The file required the deputy civil surgeon’s signature but Sharma had held the file’s processing for clearance,” he said, adding that Sharma had raised several objections for issuance of NOC and was thus harassing the owner.
“The owner had filed his replies on November 21 against all the objections raised following which Sharma once again raised an objection. The objection was about transferring the ownership of the equipment installed at the centre which was pending,” he said.
ACB officials said that after the fresh objection, the centre’s owner sought help from Sharma after a couple of days for getting the NOC processed without any further issues. To this, the suspect asked ₹5 lakh bribe for getting the clearance in a day.
According to ACB officials, the deal was finalised for ₹3.25 lakh. The owner soon approached the ACB and filed a complaint against Sharma in November last week and the allegations were verified and found to be true. Following this, an FIR against Sharma under Section 7 (public servant accepting or obtaining a bribe) of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered at the ACB police station in Gurugram on Monday.
The complainant reached the civil surgeon’s office on Monday and handed over a backpack containing the money to Sharma, following which he was arrested, said officials.
ACB officials said that further investigation was going on in the case to ascertain if it was only Sharma who had demanded the bribe or if it was to be shared with any other health department official.