CBI Uncovers Major Corruption Scandal Involving Health Ministry Officials and Medical Colleges

CBI Takes Action Against Corruption in Medical Sector

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has dismantled a significant corruption network involving officials from the Union Health Ministry, the National Medical Commission (NMC), and private medical college representatives. This network is accused of engaging in serious misconduct, including corruption and illegal manipulation of the medical college regulatory framework.

In a recent FIR, the agency has implicated 34 individuals, which includes eight officials from the health ministry, a representative from the National Health Authority, and five doctors associated with the NMC's inspection team.

Notable figures named in the FIR include D P Singh, Chairman of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mayur Raval, Registrar of Gitanjali University, Ravi Shankar ji Maharaj, Chairman of Rawatpura Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, and Suresh Singh Bhadoria, Chairman of Index Medical College.

The CBI has arrested eight individuals in connection with this case, including three doctors from the NMC team, who allegedly accepted a bribe of ₹55 lakh to provide a favorable inspection report for the Rawatpura Institute of Medical Sciences and Research located in Naya Raipur.

The investigation revealed that the scheme originated within the Union Health Ministry, where eight accused officials facilitated unauthorized access and illegal sharing of sensitive documents with medical college representatives through intermediaries in exchange for substantial bribes.

The FIR claims that these officials, in collaboration with intermediaries, manipulated the NMC's inspection process by leaking inspection schedules and the identities of assessors to the medical institutions ahead of official notifications.

The accused from the Union Health Ministry include Poonam Meena, Dharamvir, Piyush Malyan, Anup Jaiswal, Rahul Srivastava, Deepak, Manisha, and Chandan Kumar, who allegedly accessed files and photographed notes made by senior officials.

This sensitive information regarding the regulatory status and internal processes of medical institutions provided colleges with undue advantages, enabling them to execute complex schemes to deceive the inspection process.

The FIR states that such prior disclosures allowed medical colleges to engage in fraudulent practices, including bribing assessors for favorable reports, employing non-existent faculty, admitting fictitious patients to create a facade of compliance during inspections, and manipulating biometric attendance systems.

The agency has reported that bribes amounting to lakhs of rupees were exchanged among NMC teams, intermediaries, and medical college representatives, often funneled through hawala channels and misused for various purposes, including funding the construction of a temple.