Three, including govt official, held for fraudulently issuing PM-JAY cards in Gujarat

Ahmedabad: A senior government official and two others were arrested in Ahmedabad in Gujarat for alleged involvement in a racket of fraudulently issuing Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana cards to ineligible candidates, police said on Friday.

A Crime Branch release identified the arrested persons as former general manager of PM-JAY in Gujarat Shailesh Anand, Gandhinagar PM-JAY contractual employee Milap Patel and Nikhil Parekh, head of Enser Communication, an authorised outsourcing firm tasked with making these cards.

Patel used to work as project officer in the PM-JAY office in Gandhinagar under Anand, who has already been transferred elsewhere from the post of general manager, the release said.

The scam was unearthed by Crime Branch during its probe into the death of two PM-JAY beneficiaries at Ahmedabad-based Khyati Multispeciality Hospital in November following a botched angioplasty procedure, an official said.

"The role of the trio emerged after Crime Branch arrested and interrogated six persons, including Nimesh Dodiya, for their alleged involvement in issuing PM-JAY cards to ineligible beneficiaries by altering the source code of the official portal using login credentials of an authorised outsourcing firm," he said.

Dodhiya, an ethical hacker, was hired by the management of Khyati hospital to prepare Ayushman Bharat cards of ineligible patients, for which he charged Rs 1500-2000 per card, the release informed.

"Dodiya and other such agents used to run several WhatsApp groups where they used to exchange details of people wanting to get a PM-JAY card by paying money. Anand asked Patel to join one such group and give approvals for cards using his ID. In return, Anand asked Patel to give him half of the amount he would receive from agents. Patel then contacted Dodiya and agreed to approve cards for Rs 500 each," inspector Mehul Chauhan told reporters.

"For approvals, Dodiya and others had brokered a deal with Parekh, who was the Gujarat head of Enser Communication, an authorised outsourcing firm for making these cards. Parekh provided them a master login ID of his firm to make these cards. Parekh used to charge Rs 8,000-10,000 per month from these persons," Chauhan said.

Chauhan said the probe so far has found that such cards were given to at least 3000 persons, including some meant for patients admitted to Khyati Hospital.

An investigation is underway to find out if any other official was involved and how many cards were issued through such means, the inspector added.

The probe into PM-JAY irregularities began after complaints were received from kin of two persons who died after angioplasty, a procedure that widens blocked or narrowed coronary arteries to improve blood flow to the heart, at Khyati Hospital on November 11.

As per police, the hospital falsely registered patients under "emergency" category to expedite government approval and in return claimed payments under the scheme.

On November 12, three FIRs were registered at Vastrapur police station in connection with the two deaths. Those named in the FIRs have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, forgery, and criminal conspiracy to obtain financial benefits under PM-JAY scheme.