Manipur police arrests doctor for supplying of sub standard N95 masks

Guwahati: A senior medical officer of the health department of Manipur, allegedly involved in procuring sub-standard N95 masks for the district hospital in Churachandpur, was arrested by the Vigilance and Anti-corruption Police on Tuesday, July 7.

The official, who has been identified as Dr. M Dinesh Singh, is the senior medical officer of the central medical store, directorate of health services cum state nodal officer, state health society, of the National Health Mission (NHM), Manipur.

As per an official report, Dr. Singh had played a vital role in the procurement of medical protective gear -- including N95 masks -- without issuing supply orders from various firms. The protective gear which was allocated to Churachandpur district hospital was suspected to be of sub-standard quality, reports said. The arrested official will be produced before the court of the Special Jsubstandardudge (PC Act), in Imphal West on Wednesday.

200 defective N95 masks were reportedly recovered from the isolation ward of the district hospital on April 14. Soon after, the defective masks and other supplies were returned and replaced with new ones. A case was filed against some officials of the state health department after police detained substandard N95 masks in a raid at the Central Medical Directorate in Imphal.

As per reports, the raid which was conducted by a special team of the Vigilance and Anti-corruption team, seized at least 1,250 N95 masks and samples of other medical protective gear from the office.

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