Daltonganj: The registrar of births and deaths at Medinirai Medical College and Hopsital, Daltonganj, has cancelled 33 birth certificates allegedly issued using forged admit and discharge tickets showing mothers and newborns as patients in the hospital’s labour room.The certificates were digitally issued by a Pragya Kendra in Meral block of Garhwa district and related to different dates between 2006 and 2026, sources said. The records had gaps for 2006-07, 2015 and 2018. Of the 33 applicants, 25 were from Garhwa district and eight from Palamu.MMCH deputy superintendent Dr Vijay Kumar Singh, who is also the registrar of births and deaths, said, “Thirty-three birth certificates issued digitally by a particular Pragya Kendra in Meral block, using forged admit and discharge tickets of MMCH, Daltonganj, have been cancelled.”Singh said a sub-divisional magistrate in Garhwa first noticed the suspicious issuance of the certificates over a period of time. The SDM alerted Meral police, which began an inquiry and issued a notice to the MMCH registrar.“We received the notice from Meral police on Aug 29 and sent a detailed report on Sept 2,” Singh said. He added that the hospital had found no record of admission, delivery or discharge of the 33 patients linked to the certificates.Singh alleged that the hospital’s login credentials were misused and that the registrar’s digital signature was fraudulently used by outsourced computer operator Amit Kumar and Sheo Kumar Sao.Amit was served a show-cause notice. Sao, described by hospital sources as Amit’s helper and an outsider known to the staff, was not issued one. “Amit denied misusing the credentials and blamed Sao,” Singh said.Amit claimed Sao had been verbally assigned to assist with the work by hospital manager S Srivastav due to a backlog. Hospital sources, however, said there was no written record of the assigned work.Daltonganj Town police were informed on Sept 5. Meral and Daltonganj Town police are conducting separate probes. MMCH teams are scrutinising recent tickets used for issuing digital birth and death certificates.
