Doctor gets 3 years in jail for accepting bribe
Mumbai, November 22 A special Anti-Corruption court on Thursday sentenced a doctor from Cooper Hospital to three years’ imprisonment for seeking a bribe to release the body of a patient after post-mortem.
Special Judge Swapna Joshi convicted Dr Vasant Vanmore and directed him to furnish a fine of Rs 3,000.
The complainant, Umer Sarang, was a contractor in Malad whose employee, K Gangarajan, died in an accident at the construction site in May. He was declared dead before admission by Bhagwati Hospital and his body was sent to Cooper Hospital for the post-mortem the next day.
When the victim’s wife and Sarang went to collect his body, Vanmore allegedly sought a bribe of Rs 10,000 for releasing the body along with the documents. After negotiation, the amount was reduced to Rs 7,000.
Dr Vanmore allegedly asked Sarang to pay the money in two installments. While the victim’s wife paid the first installment of Rs 3,000, Sarang complained to the ACB about Dr Vanmore. The accused was trapped by the ACB accepting a bribe of Rs 4,000 in the presence of a panch witness on May 24.
Despite the complainant turning hostile, the court convicted Dr Vanmore as the circumstantial evidence was strong.
Prosecutor Kalpana Chavan said that the complainant was “won over” by Dr Vanmore but the panch witnesses stood their ground and evidence was strong for the conviction.
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