The CBI nabs 36 NMC Assessors on charges of shielding sub-standard medical colleges

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked 36 people, including officials of the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare, on charges of collecting bribe to give favorable reports to the medical colleges not maintaining stipulated standards.

 The action was taken since the NMC assessors were, shielded the institutes not maintaining  required infrastructure, not having qualified faculty and adequate patient care facilities, by collecting heavy bribe from them during the inspection. They were also accused of leaking out classified and secret information, in advance, about the inspection to the medical colleges.

The NMC delegates senior faculty members from different government medical colleges across the country, to conduct periodic inspections in the medical institutes on its behalf. These Assessors are pooled in from nation-wide government medical colleges and assigned for inspections through a randomization process, by the NMC.

The accused booked by the CBI, New Delhi include Dr J L Meena, Joint Director, NMC, three other doctors and 11 officials of the Union Health Ministry, under Sections 61(2) and 173 of the BNS 2023 and sections 7,8,9,10 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 (amended in 2018), under the FIR No RC 2182025A0014 registered on June 30, 2025.

Some of the defaulting colleges include: the Swami Narayan Institute of Medical Education, Kalol, Gujarat, Index Medical College, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, Shri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Medical sciences and Research (SRSIMSR), Raipur, Chhattisgarh, Father Colombo Medical Institute, Warangal, Telengana, Shyamlal Chandrashekhar Medical College, Khagaria, Bihar, NCR Medical College, Noida, Uttar Pradesh and Malwanchal University, Madhya Pradesh.

Those named in FIR are: Mayur Raval, Registrar, Geetanjali University, Udaipur, Rajasthan, R Randeep Nair, Project Head, Techinfy Solution Private Ltd, New Delhi, Shri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Medical sciences and Research, Raipur, Chhattisgarh(SRSIMSR), Ravishankarji Maharaj, Chairman, SRSIMSR, Atul Kumar Tiwari, Director, SRSIMSR and D P Singh, Chancellor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

The long list includes: Dr Atin Kundu, Laxminarayan Chandrakar and Sanjay Shukla…all  SRSIMSR, Dr Manjappa CN, Prof and Head of the Department, Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences, Karnataka and Dr Chaitra MS, Dr. P Rajini Reddy and Dr Ashok Shelke…all members of the inspection team of the NMC.

The list also includes: Ms Poonam Meena, Dharmavir, Piyush Malyan, Anup Jaiswal, Rahul Srivastava, Chandan Kumar, Deepak and Ms Manisha…all officials of the Union Health Ministry. Dr Satish from Bangalore, Dr Virendra Kumar from Haryana, Suresh Singh Bhadoria, of Index Medical College, Indore, Udit Narayan from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Dr Joshy Mathew, New Delhi, Indra Bali Mishra, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, Dr B Hari Prasad, Ananthapur, Andhra Pradesh and Dr Ankam Rambabu, Hyderabad.

Dr. Krishna Kishore, Akkayapalem, Visakhapatnam, Venkat, Director, Gayatri Medical College, Visakhapatnam, Father Joseph Kommareddy of the Father Colombo Institute of Medical Sciences, Warangal, Ms Shivani Agarwal, Assistant Managing Director and Head of Radiology department, NCR Institute of Medical Sciences, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh and Swami Bhaktavatsaldasji of Swami Narayan Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Kalol, Gujarat also figure in the FIR.

Certain officials of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the NMC facilitated unauthorized access and duplication of confidential information pertaining to the regulatory status and internal processing of medical colleges within the Ministry. They were also involved in preemptively disclosing the inspection schedules and identities of the designated assessors to the concerned medical institutions, in advance, which enabled defaulting colleges to deploy proxy faculties and admit fictitious patients during the inspection.

The CBI in its FIR has enumerated several instances of corruption. To name a few: Dr B Hari Prasad of Ananthapur, Andhra Pradesh, collected Rs 50 lakhs from Venkat, Director of Gayatri Medical College, Visakhapatnam, to ensure favorable settlement of a matter pending before the NMC. Dr Prasad, was also involved in arranging dummy faculty members and facilitating the issuance of Letters of Renewal and other regulatory approvals from the NMC. Dr Hari Prasad, along with Dr. Ankam Rambabu is accused of collecting Rs 20 lakh and Rs 46 lakh from Father Joseph Kommareddy of the Colombo Institute of Medical Sciences, Warangal, Telengana. A portion of the amount was passed on to Dr Meena, Jt Director, NMC.

 In another case Mayur Raval, Registrar, Geetanjali University, Udaipur, Rajasthan, demanded over Rs 25 lakh to give advance information about the inspection scheduled on June 30,2025 in the SRSIMSR, Chhatisgarh. He passed on the information on June 26,2025. He also  divulged the names of all the 04 members of the inspection team, who too conspired with Atul Kumar Tiwari, Director, SRSIMSR, to give favorable report. The team members included Dr Manjappa and Dr Chaitra. The money was passed through the Havala.

In earlier case Dr Tapan Kumar Jana, Head of Dept, Anatomy, Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital, Berhampore, West Bengal was arrested by CBI in May this year on charges of collectinbg Rs 10 lakh to give a favourable report to the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC), Belgaum, Karnatak.