ED raids 15 locations in NMC inspection bribery case
New Delhi: In a widening probe into alleged corruption in medical college inspections, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently searched 15 locations across Delhi and nine states, targeting officials of the National Medical Commission (NMC), the Health Ministry, and medical colleges accused of paying bribes to secure regulatory clearances.
Medical Dialogues has been reporting on the inspection bribery scam, which is being dubbed India’s biggest medical education scam. In its investigation, the CBI uncovered a massive criminal conspiracy involving ministry officials, NMC assessors, middlemen, and medical college administrators. The network allegedly manipulated inspection process, leaked confidential regulatory data, and accepted bribes running into crores to facilitate fraudulent approvals for medical institutions across six states.
In the CBI FIR, it is alleged that "bribes had been paid to government officials including officials of National Medical Commission (NMC) officials instead of disclosing confidential information pertaining to the inspection of medical colleges to the key managerial persons related to medical colleges and middlemen which enabled them to manipulate the parameters and obtain approval for running academic courses at the medical colleges."
In its 16-page FIR, the CBI named 35 accused, pointing out that certain public officials associated with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the NMC in criminal conspiracy with intermediaries and representatives of various private medical colleges across the country are engaged in acts of corruption, abuse of official position and willful misconduct.
As per the FIR, "these individuals have allegedly facilitated unauthorised access to and unlawful duplication and dissemination of confidential files and sensitive information| pertaining to the regulatory status and internal processing of medical colleges within the Ministry." Furthermore, the FIR reads, these individuals have been involved in manipulating the statutory inspection process conducted by the NMC by proactively disclosing the inspection schedules and identities of the designated assessors to the concerned medical institutions, well in advance of the official communication.
"Such prior disclosures have enabled the medical colleges to orchestrate fraudulent arrangements, including the bribing of assessors to secure favourable inspection reports, the deployment of non-existent or proxy faculty ("ghost faculty"), and the admission of fictitious patients to artificially project compliance during inspections, and tampering with the biometric attendance systems to falsify faculty presence records," read the CBI FIR.
These acts, committed in exchange for monetary and other illicit considerations, undermine the integrity of the regulatory framework and jeopardise the quality of medical education and public health standards in the country, it added.
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Now, according to a recent ANI report, the ED conducted searches on Thursday at 15 locations across Delhi and nine other states in connection with a case of bribery involving several government officials - a few linked to the NMC and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The raids are underway under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) from early Thursday at these locations in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi as part of the agency's probe initiated based on June 30, 2025 First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The premises being searched include seven medical college premises located in multiple states, as well as certain private persons named as accused in the FIR.
