The CBI on Friday told a Delhi court that former Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, who along with others, is accused in a graft case, had “illegally” allowed an Indore-based medical college to proceed with admissions without having sufficient faculty and clinical material.
During arguments on framing of charges, the agency told Special CBI Judge Ravinder Kaur that Mr. Ramadoss, in conspiracy with the co-accused, had permitted Index Medical College Hospital and Research Centre (IMCHRC) to admit second year students despite the fact that the Medical Council of India (MCI) and a committee, appointed by the Supreme Court, recommended against it.
CBI prosecutor V.K. Sharma said IMCHRC was not having sufficient faculty and clinical material required as per MCI norms but despite that Mr. Ramadoss granted it permission to take admission for a second batch of MBBS students for the academic year 2008-09.
“Ramadoss illegally renewed the approval for IMCHRC,” the prosecutor said adding co-accused Suresh Singh Bhadoria, chairman of IMCHRC, was in the Ministry on the day when the Minister gave his approval for it. The agency said that after MCI inspectors had clearly said that permission may not be granted to IMCHRC due to the deficiencies, a central team was constituted by the accused to obtain a favourable report for the purpose of issuing permission for renewal of admission in second year.
The prosecutor said the central inspection team was not told what they have to do and only vague instructions were given to them.
The CBI concluded its arguments on framing of charges and the defence counsel would now advance their contentions in the case on Saturday.
Mr. Ramadoss and nine others were charged on April 27, 2012 in the corruption case.
The 36-page >charge sheet had named the PMK leader and others, including two senior government officials and two doctors of the Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi and five persons associated with the private hospital in Indore which allegedly gained “pecuniary advantage” in 2008.
Besides Mr. Ramadoss, who was Union Minister from May, 2004 till April 2009 in the UPA-I government, the CBI had charged K.V.S. Rao, Director in Cabinet Secretariat, Sudershan Kumar, Section Officer of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW) and J.S. Dhupia and Dipendra Kumar Gupta of the Safdarjung Hospital.
Mr. Bhadoria, S.K. Tongia, ex-Dean of the college, K.K. Saxena, Medical Director of the College, Nitin Gothwal and Pawan Bhambani were also charged by the agency.
Mr. Ramadoss, Mr. Rao, Mr. Kumar and the two doctors of the Safdarjung Hospital were charged under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC along with offences under Prevention of Corruption Act.
Mr. Bhadoria and the other four have been charged with offences of cheating and forgery. Mr. Bhadoria has also been charged under Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to the CBI, the accused had 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 the academic year 2008-09 ignoring MCI’s recommendations.
he agency had said Mr. Rao was the then Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2008 and all files related to grant of permission or renewal of a medical college used to go to the competent authority through him while Sudershan Kumar was the section officer in the Ministry.
The CBI, in its charge sheet, had said Dr. Dhupia and Dr. Gupta were the inspectors of the central team who “obtained hospitality from IMCHRC and they failed to verify the records and persons produced before them, thus showing better facilities and higher number of faculty members.”
