The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday chargesheeted the former Union Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, for criminal misconduct amounting to abuse of official position by a public servant for allegedly allowing the Indore-based Index Medical College Hospital and Research Centre (IMCHRC) to function without adequate faculty members and facilities.
Besides Dr. Ramadoss, nine persons have been named accused in the 36-page-chargesheet. Along with the PMK leader, K. V. Rao, a director in the Cabinet Secretariat; Sudarshan Kumar, section officer in the Health and Family Welfare Ministry; Dr. J. S. Dhupia and Dr. D. K. Gupta, two senior faculty members at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital; and IMCHRC chairman Suresh Bhadoria have been chargesheeted under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI has also booked Mr. Bhadoria and other IMCHRC officials, including the former dean Dr. S.K. Tongia, medical director Dr. K.V. Saxena, human resource manager Nitin Gothwal and director of administration Pawan Bhambani for cheating and forgery.
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The CBI alleged that Mr. Bhadoria conspired with Dr. Ramadoss and two officers in his Ministry to have the college inspected by a Central team comprising Dr. Dhupia, Head of the Pathology Department, and Dr. Gupta, Head of the Hematology Department at Safdarjung Hospital, to obtain a favourable report for facilitating renewal of the college to allow admissions for another year.
This despite inspection teams of the Medical Council of India Executive Board and the Ad-hoc Committee constituted by the Supreme Court repeatedly pointing out that the college did not have sufficient faculty and clinical material, as required under MCI norms.
Further, the CBI alleged, the Supreme Court was not apprised of the inspection by Dr. Dhupia and Dr. Gupta though the matter had been pending before it.
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Along with the charge sheet, a list of 117 prosecution witnesses and 208 documents has been filed in the court of Special Judge Talwant Singh. The college was given approval for an intake of 150 students in the first year for the 2007-08 academic session. But an MCI inspection noticed inadequate faculty and bed occupancy in the hospital, and consequently renewal for 2008-09 was withheld.
A second MCI team also found deficiencies, despite a compliance report filed by IMCHRC in response to the first report.