Cash, valuables looted after giving intoxicating butter milk in train
Railway Yatri Sangha member cheated by strangers
Udupi, October 13: A member of Railway Yatri Sangha who was travelling along with his sister, was looted of cash and valuable worth lakhs by strangers after offering him the intoxicating butter milk, in the train on Friday.
Railway Yatri Sangha treasurer Ramachandra Acharya (60) of Kinnimulki in Udupi and his elder sister and wife of Krishna Bhat of Bylur in Karkala, Radhamma (75) have consumed the intoxicating butter milk offered by the stranger in the train and became unconscious. After this, they were admitted to a private hospital in Udupi and got released on Saturday.
After making them unconscious, the strangers looted total Rs 30,000 cash, mobile phone, coins and new cloths worth Rs 2000, from Ramachandra and ear ring, two rings, one gold chain and Rs 15,000 from Radhamma, it is said.
About incident
For religious rituals of his brother-in-law, Ramachandra Acharya, along with his sisters Radhamma, Seema Rao and Tulasi Upadhya have been to the Pejawar Mutt at Nasik in Maharashtra by train on October 7 from Udupi. After completing the programme, they boarded the Mangala-Nizamuddin Express train from Nasik to Udupi on October 11 at 6 am. Among them, Radhamma and Ramachandra were travelling in S-3 coach, while others in S-2 coach. Two strangers, aged between 50-60 years of age, introduced themselves to Radhamma and Ramachandra Acharya. Conversing in Hindi, the strangers introduced themselves as cloth merchants from Delhi and were going to Kerala for business and became close to them.
In the evening, the train stops at Chiplun railway station in Maharashtra. At that time, Radhamma went to toilet and Ramachandra Acharya went outside the train. At this time, both the strangers brought butter milk sachets and offered them to Radhamma and Ramachandra. Yielding to their force, they drank it and fell asleep.
Ramchandra woke up when the train reached Kundapura at around 1.30 am on Friday and noticed that the amount kept in his purse and pocket was looted. He went to another coach and informed his sisters. But Radhamma who consumed the entire butter milk fell unconscious. They informed the railway police by the time they reached Indrali railway station and both of them were admitted to a private hospital in Udupi.
‘After consuming intoxicating butter milk, we both became unconscious. They have looted the cash, mobile and gold ornaments. Since my sister slept on one side, they took one ear ring and left another. Fortunately, gold ornaments kept inside the bag in which old cloths were kept are safe as they did not notice them’, said Ramachandra Acharya.
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'Low-quality' catheters supplied to West Bengal govt hospitals at high price, probe ordered
Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal health department has launched a probe into the supplies of allegedly low-quality and locally made catheters at a high price to several government hospitals, posing a risk to the lives of patients undergoing treatment in these facilities, officials said.
Such central venous catheters (CVCs) were allegedly supplied to at least five medical colleges and hospitals in the state, defying allocation of international standard-compliant CVCs, they said.
The distribution company, which has been accused of supplying these catheters to government hospitals, admitted to the fault but placed the blame on its employees.
"We started checking stocks some time back and found these locally made CVCs in my hospital store. These catheters are of low quality as compared to those allocated by the state. We have informed the state health department," a senior official of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital told PTI.
Low-quality catheters were also found in the stores of other hospitals, which indicates "possible involvement of insiders in the scam", a health department official said.
The low-quality CVCs were supplied by a distributor in the Hatibagan area in the northern part of Kolkata for the last three to four months, he said.
"Such kinds of local CVCs are priced around Rs 1,500 but the distributor took Rs 4,177 for each device," the official said.
A CVC is a thin and flexible tube that is inserted into a vein to allow for the administration of fluids, blood, and other treatment. It's also clinically called a central line catheter.
"An initial probe revealed that the distribution company Prakash Surgical had supplied the low-quality and locally manufactured catheters to several government hospitals instead of the CVCs of the government-designated international company.
"All the units will be tested and a proper investigation is on to find out who benefited from these supplies," the health department official said.
The distribution company blamed its employees for the supply of inferior quality catheters.
"I was sick for a few months. Some employees of the organisation made this mistake. We are taking back all those units that have gone to the hospitals. It's all about misunderstanding," an official of the distribution company told PTI.
According to another state health department official, a complaint was lodged with the police in this connection.
Asked about how many patients were affected by the usage of such low-quality CVCs, the official said, "The probe would also try to find that out".
According to sources in the health department, some of the staff of the hospitals' equipment receiving departments and some local officials of international organisations might be involved in the alleged irregularities.
