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Disgruntled Pune mental hospital employee tampers with records, ‘terminates’ 9 colleagues
The office superintendent of Regional Mental Hospital, Yerwada, said she and eight others were shown dead and did not receive salaries for three months.
Regional Mental Hospital, Yerwada (Photo by special arrangement)
A disgruntled employee of Regional Mental Hospital (RMH), Yerwada, tampered with records on the Sevaarth portal—the Maharashtra government platform for managing employee and pensioner records—and wrongly showed nine colleagues as terminated, the police said.
RMH Office Superintendent Usha Bhalchim discovered that her Sevaarth ID and those of eight colleagues had been deactivated while she was reviewing salary and bill details at the hospital office on February 5, 2024.
When senior RMH authorities contacted the Directorate of Accounts and Treasuries in Mumbai, the officials confirmed they had received information indicating the termination of the nine employees’ services and had closed their Sevaarth IDs accordingly. RMH clarified that all nine employees remained in active service and requested the reactivation of their IDs.
Pune’s Vishrantwadi police station registered an FIR on May 22 based on a complaint the hospital filed with the cyber police station on February 8, 2024.
A police inquiry found that a disgruntled RMH employee had accessed the Sevaarth portal without authorisation and tampered with the records.
The FIR was registered against an unidentified accused under sections 43(j) and 66 of the Information Technology Act.
Bhalchim had her statement recorded with the cyber police station on May 22, naming the staffer allegedly responsible. He allegedly accessed the portal from his cell phone using mobile data.
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Senior Police Inspector Mangesh Hande said, “No arrest has been made yet.”
Bhalchim said the accused is currently on deputation at a zilla parishad office in Pune’s Wadgaon Sheri constituency, and hoped that strong legal action would follow.
Bhalchim described the ordeal as deeply distressing. “We were shown dead and our services were terminated. It was huge mental harassment for us,” she said. “Within three months, our details were updated and our Sevaarth IDs were activated, but our salaries were not released during this period. We got our salaries later, but it was a headache to get everything in place.”
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
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