An inquiry into the alleged demand for a bribe at the Phase-6 civil hospital to provide a fake dope test report to an arms licence applicant has indicted two employees of the district health department.

Among the two, Archit Sharma, a Class-4 employee, is posted at the government dispensary in Phase 11 and Dilpreet Singh is a lab technician at the civil hospital.

The 11-page inquiry report, submitted by a committee of four doctors – Dr Parminder Singh, Dr Vikram Jassal, Dr Nikhil and Dr Gurmukh Singh, stated that Archit in connivance with Dilpreet would approach arm licence applicants to provide them a sure negative dope test report without any sample in exchange for a bribe ranging from ₹9,000 to ₹10,000.

The prescribed fee for the dope test is ₹1,500.

Recommending strict action against the duo, the report stated that both employees had admitted to giving such negative reports to two applicants by charging ₹9,000 and ₹10,000.

The report further stated that two more employees were involved in the scam, one is posted at Landran, while another is posted at Phase 3B1.

On August 5, the matter was brought to the civil surgeon’s notice by senior medical officer (SMO) Dr HS Cheema. According to Dr Cheema, a man applying for an arms licence had approached him for the mandatory dope test, following which he had guided him to give the samples.

But when the applicant left his room, a Class-4 employee approached him outside and offered to get his test done without any samples in exchange for ₹10,000.

Mohali civil surgeon Dr Adarshpal Kaur said, “I have not seen the report, but if the committee has recommended action, we will not spare the guilty and will set an example for sure.”

In 2018, the Punjab government had made dope test mandatory while applying for an arms licence. Screening is done for 10 drugs, including morphine, codeine, D propoxyphene, benzodiazepines, 9-tetea hydro cannabinol (THC), barbiturates, cocaine, amphetamines, buprenorphine and tramadol. The report is kept confidential and the result is to be shared only with the DC office.