A Special (Vigilance) Court here on Saturday rejected the bail applications of senior doctor couple Prof Surendranath Senapati and his wife Dr Diptirani Samanta, who were arrested by the Vigilance police on Friday on corruption charges along with criminal conspiracy, forgery for cheating and deceit.
Vigilance judge RS Hota also rejected the bail application of local pharmaceutical company proprietor Sudhansu Das, who was also arrested on Friday along with the doctor couple, after the trio was booked under several Sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Sections 120-B, 468 and 471 of IPC.
Prof Senapati was officiating as the head of radiation oncology at Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre here and his wife was working as assistant professor of medical oncology of the same centre before their arrests. All the three were sent to the Choudwar circle jail on Friday.
Investigating into a disproportionate asset case against the couple, Vigilance officers detected that the doctors between May 2013 and December 2015 prescribed costly and less-known anti-cancer medicines prepared by Das’ firm to patients, who are covered under the Odisha State Treatment Fund (OSTF) and the Biju Krushak Kalyan Yojana (BKKY). While drugs of the same composition of branded companies were available in the market at lesser prices, the couple asked the patients to purchase the costly drugs prepared by Das’ firm resulting in early exhaustion of patients’ funds meant under the welfare schemes.