The CBI today told a Delhi court that it was still awaiting the sanction for prosecution of a Cabinet Secretariat director, chargesheeted by the CBI along with former Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss for their alleged illegal favours to an Indore medical college.
The CBI told Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh that in the case involving Cabinet Secretariat Director K V S Rao, former Union Health Minister Ramadoss, it is waiting for the sanction from the competent authority to prosecute Rao.
The agency told the court that it also needs time to file relevant documents in the case.
The CBI had chargesheeted Ramadoss on April 27 for allegedly abusing his official position in allowing an Indore-based medical college to go ahead with the admissions without having sufficient faculty and clinical infrastructure.
Besides Ramadoss, the CBI has chargesheeted nine others, including Rao, two doctors of Safdarjung Hospital here and five persons associated with the private hospital in Indore which allegedly gained "pecuniary advantage" in 2008.
CBI prosecutor V K Sharma today told the court that they are ready with the relevant documents but are waiting for the sanction orders. The court has now listed the matter for hearing on July 7.
The CBI, in its 36-page charge sheet, has named Ramadoss, who was the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare from May 2004 till April 2009 in UPA-I, Rao, Sudershan Kumar, Section Officer of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW) and Dr J S Dhupia and Dr Dipendra Kumar Gupta of Safdarjung Hospital.
The agency had also named Indore's Index Medical College Hospital and Research Centre (IMCHRC) Chairman Suresh Singh Bhadoria, Dr S K Tongia, the ex-dean of the college, Dr K K Saxena, its medical director, besides one Nitin Gothwal and Dr Pawan Bhambani as accused in the case.
Ramadoss, Rao, Kumar and the two doctors of Safdarjung Hospital have been charged by the CBI under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC along with offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Bhadoria and other four have been charged with offences of cheating and forgery. Bhadoria has also been charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to the charge sheet, Ramadoss and other accused conspired with each other in permitting IMCHRC admission for second year despite the fact that the Medical Council of India (MCI) and a committee appointed by the Supreme Court had "repeatedly recommended" that IMCHRC was not having sufficient faculty and clinical material required as per the MCI norms.
According to the CBI, the accused had entered into a conspiracy in which IMCHRC gained pecuniary advantage in the form of grant of permission for admission of second batch of MBBS students for academic year 2008-09 ignoring the MCI's recommendations.
The MCI had made it clear that permission may not be granted to IMCHRC due to the deficiencies observed by its inspectors.
The CBI had said Rao was the then Deputy Secretary in MHFW in 2008 and all files related to grant of permission/renewal of a medical college used to go to the competent authority through him while Sudershan Kumar was the section officer in the ministry.
The charge sheet said that one Mayank's Welfare Society was formed in 1996 and in 2005, the society proposed to open a medical and dental college and Bhadoria was authorised to do correspondence with the regulatory agencies for getting the course affiliated/recognised.
The society was given permission for establishing a new medical college for academic session 2007-08 by a September 28, 2007 letter with the approval of Ramadoss for a period of one year with annual intake of 150 students on recommendations of the MCI.
