CBI Busts Corruption Ring Involving Health Ministry and Medical Colleges

New Delhi, July 4 (PTI) - In a major crackdown on corruption, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has dismantled a network of individuals linked to the Union health ministry, the National Medical Commission (NMC), intermediaries, and representatives of private medical colleges. This group was reportedly engaged in corrupt practices and the unlawful manipulation of the regulatory framework concerning medical colleges.

The agency has filed an FIR naming 34 individuals, including eight officials from the health ministry, an official from the National Health Authority, and five doctors who were part of the NMC inspection team. Among those implicated are D P Singh, Chairman of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mayur Raval, Registrar of Gitanjali University, Ravi Shankar ji Maharaj, Chairman of the Rawatpura Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, and Suresh Singh Bhadoria, Chairman of Index Medical College.

CBI officials have recently arrested eight individuals in connection with the case. Those arrested include three doctors from the NMC team, who allegedly accepted a bribe of Rs 55 lakh to provide a favorable report for the Rawatpura Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in Naya Raipur.

The sophisticated corruption scheme is believed to have originated within the Union health ministry, involving eight officials who facilitated unauthorized access, illegal duplication, and the dissemination of confidential files and sensitive information to medical college representatives. This was done through intermediaries in exchange for substantial bribes, according to the CBI FIR.

It is alleged that these officials, in collaboration with intermediaries, manipulated the statutory inspection process conducted by the NMC by leaking inspection schedules and assessors' identities to medical institutions ahead of official announcements.

The FIR names Poonam Meena, Dharamvir, Piyush Malyan, Anup Jaiswal, Rahul Srivastava, Deepak, Manisha, and Chandan Kumar from the Union health ministry as accused. They allegedly gathered files and took photographs of notes and comments made by senior officers.

This sensitive information on the regulatory status and internal workings of medical institutions gave colleges undue advantage, allowing them to orchestrate deception tactics to bypass inspection procedures, the CBI stated.

"Such premature disclosures have enabled medical colleges to concoct fraudulent schemes, including bribing assessors for favorable inspection reports, deploying non-existent or proxy faculty (ghost faculty), admitting fictitious patients to feign compliance during inspections, and manipulating biometric attendance systems to falsify records," the FIR added.

The report highlights that substantial bribes, amounting to several lakhs of rupees, were exchanged among NMC teams, intermediaries, and representatives of medical colleges. These bribes were routed through hawala for various uses, including temple construction.

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