New Delhi, Nov 28 (IANS) In a massive nationwide crackdown, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted simultaneous searches at 15 locations across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and the National Capital Territory of Delhi in connection with large-scale corruption in the inspection and approval process of private medical colleges by the National Medical Commission (NMC), officials said on Friday.

The raids, carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), covered seven private medical colleges: Shri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (Raipur, Chhattisgarh), Index Medical College (Indore, Madhya Pradesh), Gayatri Medical College (Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh), Father Colombo Institute of Medical Sciences (Warangal, Telangana), Swaminarayan Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (Kalol, Gujarat), National Capital Region Institute of Medical Sciences (Meerut, Uttar Pradesh) and Shyamlal Chandrashekhar Medical College (Khagaria, Bihar).

The money-laundering investigation stems from an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation’s Anti-Corruption Branch in New Delhi under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

The CBI case exposed a deep-rooted nexus involving key managerial personnel of private medical colleges, middlemen, and certain public servants posted in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the National Medical Commission.

According to the probe agencies, the accused illegally leaked confidential inspection schedules and assessment parameters to college managements well in advance.

This enabled the institutions to stage elaborate frauds — deploying “ghost faculty” who existed only on paper, admitting fake patients to inflate bed occupancy, bribing NMC assessors for favourable reports, and temporarily shifting equipment and staff from other hospitals hundreds of kilometres away to create an illusion of compliance during surprise inspections.

During Thursday’s operations, ED teams seized several mobile phones, laptops, pen drives, servers containing digital records, and incriminating documents related to financial transactions.

–IANS

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