Woman staff arrested for embezzling Rs 52 lakh from Anna Nagar hospital

CHENNAI: A 24-year-old woman who was employed as a cashier at a private hospital in Anna Nagar was arrested by the Avadi City Police for alleged embezzlement of Rs 52.24 lakh from the hospital over a period of two years.

An internal audit revealed that the cashier made the patients pay the fee to her bank account’s QR code instead of the hospital and did not record the bills in the register.

The arrested person was identified as M Sowmya, a native of Thiruvarur district.

She was arrested based on a complaint by Dr B Mythili (47), who runs a fertility hospital in Anna Nagar for the past nine-years now.

Police investigations revealed that the hospital management first suspected foul play in May this year after which they checked one month’s patient records and found that some of the patients were not entered into the system.

Subsequently, an internal audit was conducted and it was found that Sowmya has been embezzling money since February 2022, just over a year into the job.

“She used to tell patients to either pay in cash claiming that the QR code of the hospital’s bank account is not working or if the patients did not have cash, she showed her bank account’s QR code instead of the hospital’s,” according to an official release.

Avadi City Police’s CCB (Central Crime Branch) arrested Sowmya on Tuesday.

She was produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.