CBI registers case against Health Ministry, NMC officials, heads of private medical colleges for ‘manipulating’ inspections

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked several educationalists, officials of the Union Health Ministry and the National Health Authority, members of the National Medical Commission (NMC) inspection teams as well as a godman head of an institution for alleged conspiracy to sabotage the inspection process for various private medical colleges in several States.

Among those named in the case are D.P. Singh, the former chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC) and current chancellor of Tata Institute of Social Studies (Mumbai); Shri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (SRSIMSR), Raipur in Chhattisgarh, and its head Ravi Shankar Ji Maharaj; Mayur Raval, registrar of Geetanjali University, Udaipur, Rajasthan; and Suresh Singh Bhadoria, chairman of Index Medical College, Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

Jitu Lal Meena, then whole-time member of Medical Assessment and Rating Board and Joint Director of the National Health Authority; Health Ministry officials Poonam Meena, Dharamvir, Piyush Malyan, Anup Jaswal, Rahul Srivastava, Chandan Kumar, Deepak, and Manisha have also been named.

NMC team members Chitra M.S., P. Rajini Reddy, Manjappa C.N., and Ashok Shelke; Venkat, director of Gayatri Medical College, Visakhapatnam; Fr. Joseph Kommareddy of Father Colombo Institute of Medical Sciences, Warangal, Telangana; Shivani Agarwal of National Capital Region Institute of Medical Sciences, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh; and Swami Bhaktavatsaldasji of Swaminarayan Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Gandhinagar, Gujarat are among the other accused.

Sabotaged inspections

According to the CBI, certain officials of the Health Ministry and members of the NMC inspection teams, in conspiracy with middlemen and representatives of various private medical colleges, were engaged in corrupt practices to extend favours to the institutions.

The accused officials supplied prior information to the representatives of medical colleges to help them subvert the assessment process by temporarily meeting the requirements and also by bribing the inspection team members for favourable reports. As alleged, proxy faculty and staff were hired by colleges to show compliance; in some cases, even bio-metric attendance systems were rigged using cloned samples to project them as permanent employees.

The first information report (FIR) states that the accused Health Ministry officials gathered classified information related to inspection, renewal, and issuance of letters of approval for various medical colleges, and supplied them to the interested parties in exchange for bribe. A key alleged middleman was Virendra Kumar, a resident of Gurugram, who operated in southern States.

Accused Randeep Nair of Techinfy Solutions was also allegedly working as a middleman approaching medical colleges such as Swaminarayan Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, National Capital Region Institute of Medical Sciences, and Shyamlal Chandrasekhar Medical College in Khagaria, Bihar, among others, assuring their representatives of prior intimation related to inspections.

Godman’s Sarkar

Former UGC chairman D.P. Singh’s name has been mentioned in connection with the allegation related to SRSIMSR. It is alleged that the institute’s head Ravi Shankar Ji Maharaj had approached Mr. Singh seeking help in persuading members of the inspection team for a positive report. He “delegated the task” to one Suresh.

It is alleged that the four members of the NMC team which visited the institution on June 30 had agreed to take bribe. One of them, Manjappa C.N., had instructed Bengaluru resident Dr. Satish to collect ₹55 lakh from a “hawala” operator. Several other transactions made through the “hawala” channels have been detected by the investigating agency.

A native of Chhipri village in Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh, Mr. Maharaj is popularly known as Rawatpura Sarkar. He founded Rawatpura Sarkar Lok Kalyan Trust in Bhind in 2000. The trust currently has a number of ashrams, blood banks, old age homes, apart from educational institutions, including schools, engineering and management colleges, nursing and pharmacy schools, and hotel management colleges.

The 57-year-old self-styled godman also has a number of influential figures as his followers, including several prominent politicians in the State.