Kalol: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Friday announced that it conducted search operations at 15 locations across the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi, including seven private medical colleges, in connection with alleged corruption in the inspection process conducted by the National Medical Commission (NMC). Searches were also conducted at the Swaminarayan Institute of Medical Sciences & Research (SIMSR) in Kalol.

The probe follows an FIR registered by the CBI under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, against several private medical colleges, government officials and others. The FIR revealed that representatives of various private medical colleges across the country, along with certain public officials associated with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India, New Delhi, and the National Medical Commission (NMC), New Delhi, were unlawfully disclosing confidential information related to inspections of medical colleges to key managerial personnel and middlemen. This enabled them to manipulate parameters and obtain approval for running academic courses at the medical colleges.

The FIR further revealed that several individuals acted as middlemen and facilitated the unlawful disclosure of sensitive information to medical colleges. They allegedly assisted in orchestrating fraudulent arrangements, including bribing assessors to secure favourable inspection reports, deploying non-existent or proxy faculty (“ghost faculty”) and admitting fictitious patients to artificially project compliance during inspections.

The searches were conducted at several locations, including seven medical colleges: Shri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (SRIMSR), Raipur; Index Medical College, Indore; Gayatri Medical College, Visakhapatnam; Father Colombo Institute of Medical Sciences, Warangal; Swaminarayan Institute of Medical Sciences & Research (SIMSR), Kalol; National Capital Region Institute of Medical Sciences, Meerut; and Shyamlal Chandrashekhar Medical College, Khagaria.

During the search operations, various pieces of evidence, including mobile phones and server data, were seized. Further investigation is underway. DeshGujarat