Madikeri, August 27: The rural police exposed the imposture of a couple who lodged a complaint that a seven-year-old boy was missing in the landslide and rains at Kaluru village in the taluk.

As the hills were collapsed due to heavy rains at Kaluru village, the villagers have left their homes in fear. At this time, Somashekar and Suma have said that their seven-year-old son Gagan Ganapathy was trapped under the mud in front of their eyes when the hill was collapsed, got the sympathy and joined the relief camp at Mythri Hall in Madikeri.

Rural police have lodged a missing case following their complaint and searched for the body of the boy for the last four days. The police along with the NDRF, SDRF and fire brigade made futile attempt to trace the boy. When the couple were asked to identify the place where their son was trapped under the mud, they became gullible  and gave confusing answer. Suspecting their behavior, they spilled the beans

that the owner of the plantation has forced them to lodge a missing complaint and they have lodged the complaint.

For both Somashekar and Suma, it was the second marriage for them and both of them have deserted their children got from their earlier marriage. When the police investigated, the boy said to be missing was traced at the house of Suma’s mother at Thithimathi.

Now, the police have registered a case against the couple for misleading the police.

It is said that they have played the drama of getting Rs 5 lakh compensation to be given to the family of the deceased in the disaster.

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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.