The CBI registered a First Information Report (FIR) Monday in connection with an alleged corruption scandal involving senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), the National Medical Commission (NMC), and several representatives of private medical colleges across the country, besides a former chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
An official with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said the deep-rooted criminal conspiracy centred around the unauthorised sharing of classified regulatory information, manipulation of statutory inspection processes, and widespread bribery to secure favourable treatment for private institutions.
The central agency has registered a regular case under section 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and sections 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The probe implicates dozens of public officials, private individuals, and institutional heads across the country, with charges ranging from bribery and criminal conspiracy to breach of official secrecy and forgery.
Illegal access to medical college inspection details
As per the CBI, a group of public officials in New Delhi, including those directly connected with the health ministry and the NMC, allegedly facilitated unlawful access to confidential files related to the inspection, recognition, and renewal processes for medical colleges. Among those named in the FIR are D P Singh, chancellor of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), who was formerly the chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
he confidential information, which included inspection schedules and the names of assessors, was reportedly disclosed to college representatives in advance, as per the FIR. This allowed institutions to stage fraudulent setups during official inspections—by deploying ghost faculty, admitting fake patients, tampering with biometric attendance systems, and bribing assessors to obtain positive reports, an official said.
Officials associated with the health ministry are alleged to have photographed internal ministry files, including confidential comments from senior officials, and transmitted them via personal mobile devices to intermediaries working with private colleges.
Among those who allegedly received the leaked data were Virendra Kumar of Gurgaon, Manisha Joshi of Dwarka, New Delhi, and several senior figures affiliated with medical institutions, including Suresh Singh Bhadoria, chairman of Index Medical College in Indore, and Mayur Raval, registrar of Geetanjali University, Udaipur, the FIR stated.
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Investigations have revealed that Virendra Kumar maintained connections with Jitu Lal Meena, then a whole-time member of the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) and acted as an intermediary in collecting bribes through hawala channels.
Funds were allegedly transferred from various college administrators to Kumar, who then delivered them to Meena. Officials said that a portion of these illicit gains was used by Meena to fund the construction of a Hanuman temple in Rajasthan at an estimated cost of Rs 75 lakh.
Involvement of institutes in South India
Further, the FIR said Kumar’s operations extended into southern India through his associate B Hari Prasad of Kadiri, Andhra Pradesh. Prasad, along with his partners Ankam Rambabu in Hyderabad and Krishna Kishore in Visakhapatnam, was reportedly involved in arranging dummy faculty and facilitating the issuance of regulatory approvals in exchange for bribes.
In one instance, Krishna Kishore allegedly collected Rs 50 lakh from the director of Gayatri Medical College, a portion of which was routed to Kumar.
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The network also encompassed institutions like Father Colombo Institute of Medical Sciences in Warangal, where large sums totalling over Rs 4 crore, were reportedly paid to Hari Prasad for securing favourable outcomes from the NMC. These payments were made through intermediaries via formal banking channels.
Ghost faculty, biometrics manipulation
At Index Medical College in Indore, it is alleged that ghost faculty were falsely recorded as permanent employees to meet the NMC’s minimum standards. The biometric attendance system was reportedly manipulated using cloned fingerprints to show full faculty presence. Its chairman, Suresh Singh Bhadoria, is also accused of issuing fake degrees and experience certificates through Malwanchal University, the parent institution of Index Medical College.
One of the most recent incidents allegedly involved the Shri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (SRIMSR) in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur. On June 26 this year, Mayur Raval, registrar of Geetanjali University, reportedly informed college official Atul Kumar Tiwari of an upcoming inspection scheduled for June 30. Raval allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 25–30 lakh and disclosed the identities of the four-member NMC inspection team.
On the inspection day, the team, including Manjappa C N of Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences, reportedly entered into a deal with Tiwari. Manjappa is said to have coordinated the bribe collection through a hawala network, instructing an associate in Bengaluru to receive and distribute funds among the assessors, including Dr Chaitra, another NMC team member.
