Govt officials among 34 named in FIR by CBI for manipulation of regulatory framework for medical colleges

New Delhi: The CBI has named a former UGC Chairman, officials of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and two doctors from Karnataka, including one from Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences, among others on charges of corruption and manipulation of the regulatory framework that governs medical institutions.

Eight officials of the Health Ministry and one from the National Health Authority official and five doctors who were part of the National Medical Commission (NMC) inspection teams have also been named in the FIR registered on June 30. The private medical colleges were given prior information about inspections so that they could prepare in advance.

Those named in the FIR include Tata Institute of Social Sciences Chancellor D P Singh, who was UGC Chairman between 2018 and 2021, Professor and HOD (Orthopedics) at Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences Dr CN Manjappa and his associate Dr Suresh from Bengaluru, Gitanjali University Registrar Mayur Raval and Rawatpura Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Chairman Ravi Shankar-ji Maharaj.

According to the FIR, Dr Manjappa was part of an NMC inspection team deputed to Shri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (SRIMSR) in Raipur.

SRIMSR Director Atul Tiwari allegedly planned to procure information about the inspection with the help of Raval while Maharaj sought the help of TISS Chancellor to persuade the members of inspection team to give a "favourable report in lieu of a bribe, who further delegated this task to one Suresh", the FIR said.

The FIR claimed that Raval demanded Rs 25-30 lakh in exchange for providing information and the former later asked Tiwari to make preparations for the inspection on June 30.

Four people, including Dr Manjappa, reached Raipur for the inspection, and allegedly entered into a conspiracy to provide a favourable inspection report for a bribe.

"...Dr Manjappa...instructed Dr Satish of Bengaluru to collect Rs 55 lakh from a hawala operator. He also told Dr Satish that he would receive a call from hawala operator as to how the amount has to be collected. Dr Manjappa also talked to Dr Chaitra, another member of the inspection team and told her that her share would be delivered by Dr Satish at her residence or someone can collect it from Dr Satish. This bribe transaction is likely to happen today (June 30) itself," the FIR claimed.

An official statement said the bribe amount of Rs 55 lakh was delivered in Bengaluru and the CBI has arrested eight people, including three doctors, for facilitating submission of favourable inspection reports in exchange for bribes.

According to the FIR, eight officials in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare ran a sophisticated scheme facilitating unauthorised access, illegal duplication and dissemination of highly confidential files and sensitive information to representatives of medical colleges through a network of intermediaries in exchange for huge bribes.

Officials, in collusion with the intermediaries, manipulated the statutory inspection process conducted by the NMC by disclosing inspection schedules and identities of the designated assessors to the medical institutions concerned well in advance of the official communication. The CBI has named Poonam Meena, Dharamvir, Piyush Malyan, Anup Jaiswal, Rahul Srivastava, Deepak, Manisha and Chandan Kumar as accused in the FIR.

They allegedly located files and clicked photographs of notings and comments made by senior officers and information pertaining to the regulatory status and internal processing of medical institutions in the ministry gave an alarming degree of leverage to colleges, allowing them to orchestrate elaborate deceptions to hoodwink the inspection process, the CBI claimed.

"Such prior disclosures have enabled medical colleges to orchestrate fraudulent arrangements, including the bribing of assessors to secure favourable inspection reports, the deployment of non-existent or proxy faculty (ghost faculty), and the admission of fictitious patients to artificially project compliance during inspections, and tampering with the biometric attendance systems to falsify," the FIR said.