AIIMS Deputy Director Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who was removed as vigilance head of the medical institute some weeks back, has approached the Central Vigilance Commission to highlight the work done by him to probe corruption and other alleged irregularities there.

In a letter to the Commission, the Indian Forest Officer has said that during his 25-month tenure as AIIMS Chief Vigilance Officer, his probe resulted in action in 165 cases.

Out of them, penalties were imposed in 78 cases, including compulsory retirement and dismissal in 21, while chargesheets were issued in 87 cases, he said.
The corresponding figures for the financial year 2010-11 and 2011-12 were only 23 and 21, respectively.

He argued that the vigilance department was a "total failure" before he took over.
During his tenure, departmental chargesheets for major penalty proceedings had been approved on corruption charges against two previous CVOs Vineet Chaudhary and Sailesh Yadav, Chaturvedi said, adding in some of these, CBI cases have also been registered.

"The charges included not only that of corruption but also related to unauthorised absence, sexual harassment, fake cost certificate among other and besides a significant quantitative jump in cases, the most significant fact was the action taken against very high profile and powerful officers," he said.

Chaturvedi was removed as CVO of AIIMS in August in a controversial manner with Health Minister Harsh Vardhan saying the step was taken as he did not fulfill the criteria for his appointment.