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JJ hospital’s honorary doctor under scanner for his alleged role in clinical drug trials
Dr Hemant Gupta, an honorary general physician at Sir JJ hospital, is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate for his alleged involvement in a ?38-crore jumbo Covid-19 centre scam. Hospital administration discovered that Gupta was operating out of the pharmacology department where unauthorized clinical drug trials were being conducted. A committee has been set up to investigate the matter and determine the nature of the trials and the individuals involved. Gupta's name surfaced in the investigation as one of the partners at M/S Lifeline Hospital Management Services, which is being probed for irregularities in the BMC's jumbo Covid-19 centres.
Strap: Dr Hemant Gupta is also one of partners at LHMS that is being probed by ED for irregularities at BMC’s jumbo Covid-19 centres
The mention of Dr Hemant Gupta, an honorary general physician at Sir JJ hospital, in the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) money-laundering investigation into the alleged ₹38-crore jumbo Covid-19 centre scam has opened a can of worms.
The hospital administration has found out that Dr Gupta was operating out of the pharmacology department where 14 people, who were not employed by the hospital, were allegedly carrying out clinical drug trials in its laboratory.
“When a senior administration official decided to meet him at the medicine department, he was informed that Dr Gupta operated from the pharmacology department on the second floor of the hospital building. When the official visited the pharmacology department, he was surprised to see that there was a full-fledged office and 14 people were working in the clinical laboratory,” a senior official at the hospital said, adding that the dean was immediately informed.
Dr Pallavi Saple, the hospital dean, on Monday set up a five-member committee to investigate who hired these people and what trials were undertaken allegedly with Dr Gupta’s association.
Sources at the hospital said a preliminary enquiry revealed that then dean Dr Mukund Tayade had in 2018 signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a private firm, Parshwa Life Sciences (PLS), under which the latter would pay ₹2 lakh in rent to the hospital for using the laboratory.
However, the dean is not authorised to sign such a pact without obtaining permission from the Directorate of Medical Education and Research, another official said.
“We have issued a show-cause notice to Dr Tayade. It was also discovered that the hospital had not received a single penny in rent to date,” the official said and added that the committee is also examining if Dr Gupta is a partner at PLS and had employed the 14 people.
The preliminary investigation has also thrown up the name of a former head of the pharmacology department, who is currently serving at the hospital and had been a co-investigator in many of Dr Gupta’s clinical trials and was getting paid.
“He is mentioned in the MoU as the coordinator for the laboratory. The committee had questioned him too. Six months ago, the new pharmacology head had issued a notice to the firm to vacate the premises,” the official added.
The room in which the laboratory was operating has now been sealed, officials said.
When the committee called Dr Gupta for questioning, he said he was abroad, sources at the hospital said.
HT too got a similar answer when it tried to contact Dr Gupta for a comment.
Dr Saple said the committee headed by Dr Ameeta Joshi, head of microbiology department, is expected to submit its report soon.
“It is not about the ED’s investigation or Dr Gupta. We are trying to find out who employed these 14 people, who were paying them, and what clinical drug trials they were working on. We have been told that Dr Gupta and others were working with JJ hospital staff for the trials. In such a case, they (co-investigators) were supposed to pay a certain amount to the institute as overhead charges (for using the staff, its infrastructure). Many of them have not. It is a loss of revenue to both the institution and the government,” the official, who was quoted above, said.
Dr Gupta’s name surfaced in the ED’s investigation as he is one of the four partners at the Worli-based M/S Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS), a firm that secured the contract from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to supply manpower for the jumbo Covid-19 centres at Dahisar and Worli.
The agency claimed that the company bagged the contract based on forged and fabricated documents and it had no prior experience in providing manpower for any medical facility.
According to ED sources, Dr Gupta had allegedly looked after the health-technical aspects in the firm.
Sources at the hospital said the committee would also investigate if PLS and LHMS were linked to each other.
The ED probe began after an FIR was registered in August 2022 against the LHMS partners.
