4 Punjab health dept staffers suspended in drug lab scam

The Punjab Health Department today announced the suspension of its chemical examiner RP Singh and three others in connection with the drug lab scam case.
Three of the accused have been on the run since the Punjab Vigilance Bureau lodged an FIR against them over two months ago. Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani announced the suspension on "account of absence from duty".
Besides RP Singh, the others suspended are lab technician Lekh Raj, junior assistant Rajesh Mishra, and Class-4 employee Mohit Gugnani.
Lekh Raj and Mishra are still at large, while Gugnani had surrendered in court in December 2013. The vigilance bureau had formally written to the health department 10 days ago seeking "strict action against them".

The bureau had registered the case in October last on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court where a specific case of a fake report of the testing of the opium samples had surfaced during a court hearing.
The vigilance bureau, which is tight-lipped over the ongoing investigations, had however come on record that it had detected 236 lab test reports where the samples of the seized drugs like opium, smack and heroin were found as negative.