Imphal, January 13 2009: In yet another case of fraudulent forgery, a BSF jawan has been accused of submitting false claims for medical reimbursement for treatment of his wife for breast cancer from RIMS.

According to an official source, one N Jugeshore Singh of Kha-Sanjenbam Mayai Leikai who is posted as a jawan of 13 Bn BSF at Piprakothi under East Champaran district of Bihar submitted forged documents claiming medical reimbursement of Rs 43,358.11 for the treatment of breast cancer of his wife N Shantibala Devi at the Cancer Department of RIMS to the BSF authorities.

Subsequent to the submission of the claim for medical reimbursement, the Commandant of the 13 Bn BSF post at Piprakothi sent the relevant documents to the Medical Superintendent of RIMS for verification in the last week of December last year.

Suspicious of the impression of the seal and the signature of the Medical Superintendent attached on the documents, the matter was referred to Dr L Joychand of Radiology Department of RIMS who was claimed to have treated the patient in question.

After reverification of the documents, Dr Joychand submitted his report confirming that there was no such case in the Radiology Department of RIMS.

Among the documents submitted for claiming the medical reimbursement, the accused had enclosed a forged discharged slip of the patient allegedly issued by Dr L Joychand on July 25, 2007, an admission slip (Rs 50) claiming that the patient was admitted to the hospital on July 7, 2007 and another slip (Rs 360) for biopsy test conducted on the patient on July 9, 2007 .

Apart from these slips, the claim for medical reimbursement had been enclosed with 17 slips related to purchase of medicines from three different chemist shops namely Lairembi Pharmacy located just opposite to Gynae OPD of RIMS, Public Medical Store located at RIMS Road and Manipur Medicos, Thangal Bazar.

Of these 17 slips, eight pertaining to a sum of Rs 6,981.96 were related to Lairembi Pharmacy, seven pertaining to a sum of Rs 20,539.07 were related to Public Medical Store and the remaining two pertaining to a sum of Rs 15,430 were related to Manipur Medico.

In connection with the case, Medical Superintendent of RIMS Dr Y Mohen informed that a report has been registered with Imphal West Police Station on January 7 to effect the arrest of the accused person.

Stating that this is not the first time that such false claims for medical reimbursement have been detected, the Medical Superintendent disclosed that in all four cases, three from the IFC Department and one from Electricity Department of the State Government have been received by the medical institute last year.

As there is close similarity in the manner of forging the signature and submitting documents in the last four cases and the present case, Dr Mohen suspected the handiwork of one person behind all these cases.

While informing the findings of the verification of the documents in the latest case would be communicated to the Commandant of 13 Bn BSF, Dr Mohen has also appealed to the people for co-operation in nailing the culprits of such false claims.

Furthermore, the Medical Superintendent conveyed that till yesterday in all 34 persons have been booked and a total sum of Rs 6800 have been collected as fine for the offence of smoking cigarettes inside the Hospital and RIMS complex.

The fine amount thus collected is being utilised in purchasing medicine from Lamphel Pharmacy, RIMS Road for providing free chemotherapy treatment to patients coming to the OPD of Cancer Department of RIMS, the Medical Superintendent added.

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