New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday fixed December 2 for hearing arguments on charges in a case in which former union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, along with others, was chargesheeted for allegedly allowing a medical college to proceed with admissions without sufficient faculty and clinical material.
Special CBI Judge Madhu Jain listed the case for December 2 saying the "public prosecutor for CBI has changed and more than four months have passed, therefore, re-notify the matter for arguments on charge on December 2."
During the arguments earlier, the agency had alleged that Ramadoss had "illegally" permitted Indore-based Index Medical College Hospital and Research Centre(IMCHRC) to take admission for second year despite the fact that the Medical Council of India (MCI) and a committee, appointed by the Supreme Court, recommended against it.
CBI had alleged that IMCHRC was not having sufficient faculty and clinical material required as per MCI norms but despite that Ramadoss granted it permission to take admission for second batch of MBBS students for academic year 2008-09.
Ramadoss and nine others were chargesheeted by CBI on April 27, 2012 in the corruption case.
The 36-page charge sheet had named the PMK leader and others, including two senior government officials and two doctors of Safdarjung Hospital here and five individuals associated with the private hospital in Indore which allegedly gained "pecuniary advantage" in 2008.
Besides Ramadoss, who was Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare from May, 2004 till April 2009 in UPA-I, CBI had chargesheeted K V S Rao, Director in Cabinet Secretariat, 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.
Chairman of IMCHRC Suresh Singh Bhadoria, Dr S K Tongia, ex-Dean of the college, Dr K K Saxena, Medical Director of the College, Nitin Gothwal and Dr Pawan Bhambani were also chargesheeted by the agency.
Ramadoss, Rao, Kumar and the two doctors of Safdarjung Hospital were chargesheeted under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC along with offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The other accused were chargesheeted for the offences of cheating and forgery.
According to 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 MCI's recommendations.
The agency had said Rao was the then Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2008 and all files related to grant of permission or renewal of a medical college used to go to the competent authority through him while Sudershan Kumar was the Section Officer in the ministry.
CBI, in its charge sheet, had said Dhupia and Gupta were the inspectors of the central team who "obtained hospitality from IMCHRC and they failed to verify the records and persons produced before them, thus showing better facilities and higher number of faculty members."
