NMC inspection bribery case: 7 medical colleges under ED lens
New Delhi: Seven private medical colleges across India are under scrutiny after investigators unearthed widespread irregularities in their National Medical Commission (NMC) inspection and approval processes.
These institutions are suspected of manipulating regulatory assessments by using proxy faculty, arranging fake patients, and temporarily importing equipment to falsely project compliance during official inspections.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted simultaneous searches at 15 locations across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and the National Capital Territory of Delhi in connection with large-scale corruption in the inspection and approval process of private medical colleges by the National Medical Commission (NMC).
The raids, carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), covered seven private medical colleges: Shri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (Raipur, Chhattisgarh), Index Medical College (Indore, Madhya Pradesh), Gayatri Medical College (Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh), Father Colombo Institute of Medical Sciences (Warangal, Telangana), Swaminarayan Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (Kalol, Gujarat), National Capital Region Institute of Medical Sciences (Meerut, Uttar Pradesh) and Shyamlal Chandrashekhar Medical College (Khagaria, Bihar), reports IANS
Also Read:ED raids 15 locations in NMC inspection bribery case
During Thursday's operations, ED teams seized several mobile phones, laptops, pen drives, servers containing digital records, and incriminating documents related to financial transactions.
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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