New Delhi, July 6: India’s federal investigative agency has booked 34 individuals, including health ministry officials, doctors, and private university representatives, in a sweeping case of alleged bribery and manipulation of regulatory inspections for medical colleges, officials said on Friday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a First Information Report (FIR) detailing a network of corruption involving officials from the Union Health Ministry, the National Medical Commission (NMC), and intermediaries linked to private institutions.
Eight health ministry officials, one National Health Authority official, and five doctors from the NMC inspection team were named in the FIR, alongside prominent educationists and medical college administrators. Those named include D.P. Singh, chairman of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Mayur Raval, registrar of Gitanjali University; Ravi Shankar Ji Maharaj, chairman of Rawatpura Institute of Medical Sciences; and Suresh Singh Bhadoria, chairman of Index Medical College.
The CBI said the accused were part of a syndicate that illegally accessed and shared confidential files and inspection schedules with medical colleges in exchange for substantial bribes. The agency has arrested eight individuals so far, including three NMC doctors who allegedly received a bribe of ₹5.5 million ($65,900) for issuing a favourable report to Rawatpura Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, based in Naya Raipur.
According to the FIR, officials disclosed internal regulatory information well in advance, allowing colleges to prepare fraudulent displays of compliance, including the use of proxy faculty, fictitious patients, and tampering with biometric attendance records.
“These disclosures enabled colleges to orchestrate fraudulent arrangements to hoodwink the inspection process,” the FIR said, adding that bribes were routed through hawala channels and, in some cases, passed off as funds for temple construction.
The named health ministry officials include Poonam Meena, Dharamvir, Piyush Malyan, Anup Jaiswal, Rahul Srivastava, Deepak, Manisha, and Chandan Kumar. The FIR accuses them of photographing internal ministry notings and sharing them with intermediaries for personal gain.
The CBI described the acts as “egregious” and said the scheme undermined the credibility of India’s medical education regulatory framework. The investigation remains ongoing.
