Two health department ex-directors get jail in corruption case

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Two former directors of health services, V K Rajan and K Shylaja, were each sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment by the vigilance special court here after they were found guilty of corruption in connection with Hepatitis-B vaccination programme. A penalty of Rs 52 lakh each was also imposed on them.
The case was that in 2002, the two convicts conspired to procure excess stock of Hepatitis-B vaccine in the name of a vaccination programme in Thiruvananthapuram district, which they did knowing well enough that there was no vaccination programme for district-wise immunisation drive in the government’s schedule.They procured the stock at exorbitant cost from different firms in Mumbai and Hyderabad, causing a loss of Rs 1.49 crore to the state exchequer. Rajan was DHS and Shailaja the district medical officer in Thiruvananthapuram when this happened.
Besides Rajan and Shylaja, store verification officer Sadasivan Nair, pharmacist and store keeper K Mohammed and store superintendent Augustine Thomas were the other accused. Nair and Mohammed were exonerated by the court for lack of evidence against them. Thomas did not face trial as he died before its commencement.
The state health department had removed Shylaja, from the post of DHS in November 2009 after vigilance department initiated steps to prosecute her in the corruption case.