Bhubaneswar, July 23: National Aluminum Company Limited (Nalco) has lodged a case against a leading private hospital here alleging that it has issued forged medical bills in the name of one of its employees.

The company had lodged a complaint in this regard with the Saheed Nagar police station.

According to the FIR registered on July 17, the Nalco authorities have alleged that the private hospital had raised a forged bill for the treatment of its employee Mini Das, who was shifted to the private facility from the company's hospital at Angul for treatment of diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease and asthma.

"The Bhubaneswar-based private hospital raised a bill of Rs 5,85,356 on April 29 this year. This included cathlab consumables for Rs 4,20,255 against which a tax invoice was enclosed from a Calcutta-based firm. As per the tax invoice, the private hospital has bought medical goods from the Calcutta firm at a total cost of Rs 4,14,678," the FIR states.

However while scrutinising the bill, Nalco authorities spoke to an employee of the Calcutta firm over phone. The employee confirmed that the firm does not supply medical goods mentioned in the tax invoice.

Later, the matter was referred to the vigilance department of the central public sector undertaking.

When the vigilance department of Nalco got in touch with the Calcutta-based firm over phone and through e-mail, they denied having generated the bill.

"The response of the Calcutta-based firm clearly establishes that the invoice raised in its name by the Bhubaneswar-based private hospital is forged," the FIR states.

The incident has made the nationalised company review all high-value medical bills submitted by the private hospital in question.

The company has empanelled several private hospitals, including the one involved in this case.

Nalco has a four-year agreement with the hospital that finds itself in the eye of a storm.

Inspector in-charge of Saheed Nagar police station Deepak Kumar Mishra said that a case had been registered under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 34 (more than one man committing the crime) of the Indian Penal Code.

"We are investigating the matter," Mishra said.

However, an official of the private hospital refused to comment on the plea that the hospital was not aware of the complaint.