Busting systematic corruption in the education sector, the Central Bureau of Investigation has booked several officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), the National Medical Commission (NMC) and representatives of medical colleges, besides a former chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
The agency said that the accused were allegedly involved in a litany of “egregious” acts, including corruption and unlawful manipulation of the regulatory framework governing medical colleges across the country.
In all, the CBI has named 34 people in an FIR, including eight health ministry officials, a National Health Authority official and five doctors, who were part of the National Medical Commissioner (NMC) inspection team.
Tata Institute of Social Sciences Chairman DP Singh, Gitanjali University Registrar Mayur Raval, Rawatpura Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Chairman Ravi Shankar ji Maharaj and Index Medical College Chairman Suresh Singh Bhadoria have also been named in the FIR.
The CBI recently arrested eight people in the case. These include three doctors of the NMC team who were arrested for allegedly taking a bribe of `55 lakh for giving a favourable report to the Naya Raipur-based Rawatpura Institute of Medical Sciences and Research.
The FIR alleged that the syndicate has its roots in the Union health ministry, where eight accused officials ran the 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.
The CBI alleged that the 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 FIR has been registered as a regular case under section 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and sections 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The probe implicates dozens of public officials, private individuals, and institutional heads across the country, with charges ranging from bribery and criminal conspiracy to breach of official secrecy and forgery.
The CBI has named the Union health ministry’s 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 officers.
As per the FIR, the confidential information, which included inspection schedules and the names of assessors, was reportedly disclosed to colleges in advance.
This allowed institutions to stage setups during official inspections, deploying ghost faculty, admitting fake patients, tampering with biometric attendance systems, and bribing assessors to obtain positive reports.
Officials associated with the health ministry are alleged to have photographed internal ministry files, including confidential comments from senior officials, and transmitted them via personal mobile devices to intermediaries working with private colleges.
The agency has mentioned bribes running into lakhs of rupees being exchanged between NMC teams, intermediaries and representatives of medical colleges, being routed through hawala and used for multiple purposes, including the one in the name of construction of a temple.
