CBI searches premises of former officer to Anbumani Ramadoss

The CBI today conducted searches at the residential premises of DS Moorthy, former officer on special duty to the then union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, in connection with alleged Medical Council of India scam.
     
A team of CBI officials searched the house of Moorthy in Chennai in the connection with a case registered against Indore-based Index Medical College, which had allegedly forged records to re-start the admission process stopped by the ministry, official sources said.
     
Last year, the CBI had registered the case under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC against Dr DK Gupta and Dr JS Dhupia of Safdarjung Hospital here and Index Medical College, Indore.
    
It is alleged that in the year 2008, the Medical Council of India refused permission to the college for admissions for its second batch. The college had then approached Supreme Court which asked both MCI and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to conduct the inspection of the college afresh and inform the court on September 26, 2008.
     
Accordingly, the inspection report given by the MCI inspectors again showed deficiencies in the infrastructure of the college, especially the manpower. However, the ministry constituted a team of two doctors from Safdarjung Hospital,
which conducted inspection on September 25, the CBI had alleged.
     
"On September 26, ministry of health and family Welfare granted permission to the said college on the basis of the inspection conducted on September 25. But in another inspection conducted by the MCI Inspectors after about 10 days, the college was still found to be having deficiencies in its manpower resources," the CBI had said.
     
On the day of inspections, false records were allegedly created regarding the availability and employment of doctors as college faculties, which became the basis for the grant of permission by the Ministry, it alleged.
     
Corruption-ridden Medical Council of India (MCI), set up 76 years ago to regulate medical education in the country, was dissolved in May in the wake of scam involving its then chairman Ketan Desai and was replaced by a six-member panel of
eminent doctors.     

Desai was arrested on April 22, 2010 by CBI for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs two crore to give permission to a Punjab medical college to recruit a fresh batch of students without having requisite infrastructure.