A reported medicine theft at the Shetphalgarhe primary health centre in Indapur taluka, Pune district, has prompted the district health department to form an inquiry committee after residents alleged that medicines meant for poor patients were removed from the facility. No criminal case had been registered in the matter at the time of the report.
According to Pudhari – Pune, residents began questioning the situation after patients visiting the health centre were reportedly told that medicines were unavailable. The concern intensified when medicines were said to have been present at the facility shortly before staff reported that supplies had run out.
Local residents then sought access to CCTV footage, citing an urgent need to establish what had happened. The footage reportedly showed Dr Snehal Karande, described in the report as a contractual female medical officer, placing medicines from the centre into sacks and taking them away in a two-wheeler and a four-wheeler during the night of 2 November.
The report said the incident itself occurred on 1 November, after which patients visiting the centre were allegedly turned away because medicines were not available. Residents had reportedly complained to the district health department, but no immediate action was taken until the CCTV footage brought wider attention to the matter.
Dr Karande had allegedly been removed from service around one and a half months before the reported incident. The account does not establish why she was removed from service or whether the department had formally restricted her access to the health centre after that decision. It also does not state the quantity, type or monetary value of the medicines allegedly taken.
The reported episode has exposed the vulnerability of medicine distribution at a rural public health facility, where patients may have limited alternatives when essential supplies are unavailable. A primary health centre’s stock is purchased through public funds and is intended for patients using government healthcare services, making accurate inventory records and controlled access central to the system’s functioning.
The district health department has now begun the process of investigating the matter and has constituted an inquiry committee following pressure from residents, the report said. The report did not identify the committee members, specify a deadline for its findings or state whether the department had conducted a physical stock audit.
Some local residents also alleged that local political figures had attempted to exert pressure to suppress the matter after it came to light. Those allegations have not been independently established in the supplied report. The immediate official steps reported so far are the inquiry and proposed administrative action; the filing of a police case remains pending.
