Multi-city CBI raids: Bribes, godman’s role exposed in medical college regulation; 6 held

New Delhi/Bhopal/Raipur:  In a sweeping action exposing deep-rooted corruption in medical college regulation and accreditation, the CBI arrested six people, including three doctors, and busted a racket involving self-styled godman Rawatpura Sarkar, former UGC Chairman D.P. Singh and a network of officials and middlemen, an official said on Saturday.

The muli-state corruption racket forced the CBI to raided more than 40 locations in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has named 34 and one unidentified person in its first information report (FIR) registered on June 30, under section 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and Sections 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018) that deal with criminal conspiracy and bribery of public servants.

The FIR names of several high-ranking officials, intermediaries, and representatives of private medical colleges across India.

The CBI recently arrested six people including three doctors in the case of preparing a report in favour of Shri Rawatpura Sarkar Medical College (SRIMSR), Nava Raipur of Chhattisgarh. The accused allegedly took a bribe of Rs 55 lakh from the college management for giving a favourable report despite shortcomings in the college facilities.

The accused were arrested red-handed include Dr Manjappa CN, Dr Ashok Shelke, Dr Satish A, Dr Chaitra MS and her husband Ravichandran along with Atul Kumar Tiwari.

The FIR registered by CBI says that Rs 55 lakh bribe was given through hawala. Apart from this, CBI also registered a case against Ravishankar Maharaj alias Rawatpura Sarkar – the chairman of the college.

The CBI had received a concrete information that some officials of the Ministry of Health and the National Medical Commission (NMC), in connivance with the representatives of private medical colleges, were committing widespread irregularities in the recognition process.

These officials ignored the rules and got many private medical colleges recognised illegally and took a huge bribe in return, said the input.

According to the CBI FIR, some public servants in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the National Medical Commission (NMC) colluded with private individuals and institutions to subvert the statutory inspection processes governing medical education.

The offences reportedly occurred across Raipur, Bangalore, Indore, Udaipur, Delhi and other locations during 2024–25.

Among the prominent names named in the FIR are Dr. Jitu Lal Meena, Joint Director at the National Health Authority, Dr. Manjappa CN, Professor at Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences and member of the NMC inspection team, and Mayur Raval, Registrar of Geetanjali University, Udaipur.

Also named are senior functionaries from Shri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (SRIMSR), including Chairman Shri Ravi Shankar Ji Maharaj alias Rawatpura Sarkar and Director Atul Kumar Tiwari.

The report reveals a staggering network of bribery, falsification of records, and leaks of confidential inspection schedules. It states that “medical colleges were provided advance information about statutory inspections and names of assessors,” which enabled them to fabricate compliance, hire proxy faculty, admit fictitious patients, and even tamper with biometric attendance systems.

–IANS