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Govt officials among 35 booked by CBI in medical college graft case
The accused were booked under Section 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Sections 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Hyderabad/Mumbai The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against officials of the Union health ministry, National Medical Commission, intermediaries and representatives of private medical colleges in connection with alleged irregularities and corruption during the mandatory inspections of private medical colleges.
The first information report, which was registered by the CBI on June 30 and came to light on Thursday, named 35 people, including former University Grants Commission chair and Tata Institute of Social Sciences Chairman DP Singh, Gitanjali University Registrar Mayur Raval, Rawatpura Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Chairman Ravi Shankar ji Maharaj and Index Medical College Chairman Suresh Singh Bhadoria, officials familiar with the matter were quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
The accused were booked under Section 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Sections 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
In the FIR, which was seen by HT, the CBI charged the accused of being part of a deep-rooted criminal conspiracy in the unauthorised sharing of classified regulatory information, manipulation of statutory inspection processes, and widespread bribery to secure favourable treatment for private institutions.
The CBI said it had received reliable information that certain officials associated with the Union ministry of health and family welfare, and the National Medical Commission (NMC) have allegedly facilitated unauthorized access to and unlawful duplication and dissemination of confidential files and sensitive information pertaining to the regulatory status and internal processing of medical colleges within the ministry.
“Furthermore, they have been involved in manipulating the statutory inspection process conducted by the NMC by pre-emptively disclosing the inspection schedules and identities of the designated assessors to the concerned medical institutions, well in advance of the official communication,” the central agency said in the FIR.
Such prior disclosures enabled the medical colleges to orchestrate fraudulent arrangements, including the bribing of assessors to secure favourable inspection reports, deployment of non-existent or proxy faculty and admission of fictitious patients to artificially project compliance during inspections. “They were also found tampering with the biometric attendance systems to falsify faculty presence records,” the FIR said.
The officials of the Union health ministry were misusing their official access by locating and tracking relevant files within the ministry and capturing photographs of internal notes and comments made by senior ministry officials. “These images are then being shared through personal mobile devices with private individuals and representatives of medical colleges, thereby violating official secrecy protocols and compromising the integrity of the regulatory process,” the FIR said.
