'MCI panel members aided tainted ex-chief to become WMA prez-elect'

The Chief Vigilance Officer of the Medical Council of India (MCI) has found three ethics committee members guilty of providing wrong information about scam-tainted former MCI president Ketan Desai to the World Medical Association, paving the way for the latter to become WMA chief next year.

The CVO not only recommended action against the three doctors -- Ajay Kumar, Sudipto Roy and Vinay Agarwal – but also suggested referring the matter to the health ministry.

But two months after he made the suggestions to MCI president Jayashree Mehta, there is no action on the part of the health ministry.

In fact, Union health minister J P Nadda was seen seated next to Desai at a conference in Ahmedabad in the last week of December.

Desai will become the president-elect of WMA in October, 2015 and president in 2016. His name was recommended to the WMA by the Indian Medical Association – country’s largest body of doctors – which Desai used to head between 2001 and 2003.

The WMA claims Desai’s name was considered after MCI and IMA member Kumar – an old associate of Desai – provided documentary evidence suggesting criminal charges against Desai were dropped.

Citing an April 22, 2014 letter of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Kumar claimed 6 out of 8 cases have been closed against Desai and there are no charges against him in one case and the trial court proceedings have been stayed by the Supreme Court in another case. Kumar, Roy and Agarwal accompanied Desai to the WMA meeting in Durban in October.

Contradicting Kumar’s claims, the MCI vigilance officer K H K Jethi said that the MCI president should inform the WMA that two CBI cases are still pending and presently Desai is on bail in the main CBI trap case.

He also sought action against the trio. The MCI president is believed to be a close associate of Desai.

“A baleful attempt has been made by senior IMA officials, some of whom are also occupying top positions in the newly formed MCI, to restore public image of disgraced ex-MCI president Ketan Desai, and to obstruct the course of justice by making him president-elect of WMA through blatant lies and misleading information,” said Kunal Saha, a US-based doctor, who heads a NGO named People for Better Treatment.

“In the original case, CBI filed a closure report on the corresponding case on disproportionate assets in 2012, which was accepted by the CBI Court.

Without a DA case, where is the proof of corruption? His registration which was suspended following his arrest was revoked by the MCI Board of Governors in December 2013,” K K Agarwal, the incumbent Secretary General (Elect) of IMA told Deccan Herald.
DH News Service