CBI files chargesheet against Anbumani Ramadoss in corruption case

Former Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss was on Friday chargesheeted by CBI in a Delhi court for allegedly abusing his official position in allowing a Indore-based medical college to go ahead with admissions without having sufficient faculty and clinical material.

The 36-page charge sheet named the PMK leader and nine others including two senior government officials and two doctors of Safdarjung Hospital here and five persons associated with the private hospital in Indore which allegedly gained "pecuniary advantage" in 2008.

Besides Ramadoss, who was the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare from May, 2004 till April 2009 in UPA-I, CBI has filed charge sheet against KVS Rao, Director in Cabinet Secretariat, Sudershan Kumar, Section Officer of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW) and Dr JS Dhupia and Dr Dipendra Kumar Gupta of Safdarjung Hospital.

The charge sheet, filed before Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh, also named Suresh Singh Bhadoria, Chairman of Index Medical College Hospital and Research Centre (IMCHRC), Dr SK Tongia, ex-Dean of the college, Dr KK Saxena, Medical Director of the college, Nitin Gothwal and Dr Pawan Bhambani.

Ramadoss, Rao, Kumar and the two doctors of Safdarjung Hospital have been charged by the agency under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC along with offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Bhadoria and other four have been charged with offences of cheating and forgery. Bhadoria has also been charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

According to the charge sheet, Ramadoss and other accused conspired with each other in permitting IMCHRC admission for second year despite the fact that the Medical Council of India (MCI) and a committee appointed by the Supreme Court had "repeatedly recommended" that IMCHRC was not having sufficient faculty and clinical material required as per the MCI norms.

Along with the charge sheet, the CBI had filed a list of 117 prosecution witnesses and 218 documents in the court.

The agency told the court that Rao, Sudershan Kumar, Dr Dhupia and Dr Gupta are public servants for whom sanction for prosecution is required.

The said they have got sanction against the three accused while sanction against Rao is awaited.

According to CBI, the accused entered into a conspiracy in which IMCHRC gained pecuniary advantage in the form of grant of permission for admission of second batch of MBBS students for academic year 2008-09 ignoring the recommendations of the MCI.

The MCI had made it clear that permission may not be granted to IMCHRC due to deficiencies observed by its inspectors.

The agency said Rao was the then Deputy Secretary in MHFW in 2008 and all files related to grant of permission/renewal of a medical college used to go to the competent authority through him while Sudershan Kumar was the section officer in the ministry.

"It is established that Bhadoria in conspiracy with Ramadoss, Rao, Kumar inspected by a central team consisting of Dhupia and Gupta on September 25, 2008 with a view to obtain favourable inspection report for the purpose of issuing permission for renewal of the college for admission for second year inspite of the fact that the inspector of MCI, executive board along with Adhoc Committee constituted by the Supreme Court had repeatedly recommended that the college was not having sufficient faculty and clinical material required as per the MCI norms," the charge sheet said.

"Thus in this matter, the aforesaid public servant abused their position to cause pecuniary advantage to the college," it said.

The charge sheet said that one Mayank's Welfare Society was formed in 1996 and in 2005, the society proposed to open a medical college and dental college and Bhadoria was authorised to do correspondence with the regulatory agencies for getting the course affiliated/recognised.

The society was given permission for establishing a new medical college for academic session 2007-08 by a September 28, 2007 letter with the approval of Ramadoss for a period of one year with annual intake of 150 students on recommendations of the MCI.

The agency said the society established IMCHRC in Indore and for the purpose of renewal, MCI conducted an inspection on May 8-9, 2008 where several deficiencies in teaching faculty and bed occupancy were observed.

Due to the deficiencies, the executive committee and adhoc committee, appointed by the Supreme Court, recommended to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for not renewing the permission.

On MCI's recommendations, a compliance report was sought from IMHCRC by the ministry and after the college filed its reply, again a team was formed and on inspection, they find various deficiencies.

Later on, a team constituting Dr J S Dhupia and Dr DK Gupta was formed and they were directed to inspect the IMCHRC and file their report by September 25, 2008.

After these doctors inspected the college, they filed their report saying there was adequate strength of faculty for admission of 100 MBBS students and other facilities for 150 students in IMCHRC.

The report was sent to Rao and after processing it, Rao and Sudershan Kumar obtained approval of Ramadoss on it.

However, the MCI suo-motu conducted another inspection of the college on October 1, 2008 and the team found that their was deficiencies including shortage of teaching faculty.

"It is also further established that in order to have a favourable report of the central team, Bhadoria further conspired with employees Tongia, Saxena, Bhambani, Gothwal, HR manager and submitted fake list of faculty members and false bed occupancy reports.

"They also forged signatures of such persons, who were shown as faculty members of the college but were actually not even present in the college on the day of inspection," the charge sheet said.

The agency said Dhupia and Gupta got the signatures of "dummy faculty members" which were forged just to show full strength of the faculty members.

The CBI, in its charge sheet, said that Dhupia and Gupta were the inspectors of the central team who "obtained the hospitality from the IMCHRC and they failed to verify the records and persons produced before them, thus showing better facilities and higher number of faculty members."