Doc caught in bribery case found working in three districts’ health facilities

Khargone: A bribery sting meant to catch a govt doctor taking a Rs 5,000 payoff has instead pulled back the curtain on something far bigger in Madhya Pradesh: The contractual medical officer appears to have been drawing salaries from three different districts at the same time.The crackdown started on July 3, when the Rewa Lokayukta police caught the doctor allegedly accepting the bribe. At the time, he was posted as a contractual medical officer at Oofri Primary Health Centre in Shahdol district — an ordinary anti-corruption case, or so it seemed.But once news of the trap began circulating on social media and in local reports, officials in neighbouring districts started noticing something odd.

The doctor, it turned out, was also on the books at Sahsaram Primary Health Centre in Sheopur district.Then came a third discovery: Khargone officials found he had been posted at the Govt Primary Health Centre in Keli, in the Khargone district’s Segaon block, since Feb 2023.Khargone chief medical and health officer Dr DS Chauhan confirmed the posting and said he had immediately asked the Segaon Block Medical Officer Dr Kuldeep Goyal to pull together the accused doctor’s appointment papers, attendance records and salary history.

Dr Goyal said photographs of the doctor circulating online matched the man who had been working at Keli PHC since 2023 — one who had a habit of going missing without notice. The doctor was already issued several show-cause notices for unauthorised absence, Goyal said, and matter came to a head on June 8, when a pregnant woman delivered at the Keli PHC while he was reportedly nowhere to be found.The district collector responded by recommending disciplinary action.

Under his duty roster, Goyal explained, the doctor was supposed to work round-the-clock shifts for three days, then take three days off. His May salary was withheld over the unauthorised absences, though it was eventually released for June once his attendance improved.In Shahdol, CMHO Dr Rajesh Mishra said the doctor had held his post at PHC Oofri since Feb 2024 — but had gone unpaid for four months because of irregular attendance.

Mishra said he only learnt of the Sheopur posting afterward, when that district’s CMHO wrote to him asking for service records.In Sheopur, CMHO Dr Dileep Singh Sikarwar said the doctor had been posted at PHC Sahsaram since 2021. When the bribery case broke, he tried to summon him for an explanation.“After receiving the information, I immediately called him and asked him to report to my office. However, he neither appeared before me nor responded thereafter,” Sikarwar said, adding that the doctor then switched off his phone.Calling the case suspicious, Sikarwar has set up a four-member inquiry committee and written to Shahdol seeking the doctor’s full records. His June salary, too, has been withheld.TOI contacted the doctor over phone and sent messages for his statements, but he remained incommunicado.