New Delhi, 5 July 2025:
A major scam involving bribery, phony inspections, and biometric fraud has been discovered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating a number of well known individuals.
Senior officials from the National Medical Commission (NMC) and Health Ministry, self styled godman Ravi Shankar Maharaj (also known as Rawatpura Sarkar), and former University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman D P Singh are among those named in the CBI's FIR. 34 people are allegedly involved in the scam, which reportedly spans several states. These include five doctors appointed by the NMC, eight officials from the Health Ministry, and a staff member of the National Health Authority.
Allegedly, the defendants conspired with private medical schools to fabricate patients and ghost faculty in order to stage compliance, falsify inspection reports, and leak private documents.
The CBI's FIR claims that hawala channels were used to exchange bribes. In one case, three NMC physicians were taken into custody after they accepted a bribe of ₹55 lakh to give the Rawatpura Institute of Medical Sciences in Naya Raipur a positive inspection report. The FIR also claims that Mayur Raval, the Registrar of Gitanjali University, unlawfully obtained the advance inspection details that Ravi Shankar Maharaj requested in exchange for ₹25–30 lakh. Singh, who is currently the Chancellor of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, is also connected to attempts to sway inspections in the scam.
The FIR states that "Singh assigned the task to one Suresh." Several middlemen, some of whom were allegedly connected to political and religious circles, handled the bribes. According to the CBI, some of the illegal money was even utilised to build a temple.
Among those detained is Index Medical College Chairman Suresh Singh Bhadoria, who is accused of using cloned artificial fingers to fabricate faculty biometric records. The CBI observed that tampered biometric attendance systems, fake patient data, and nonexistent employees were used to pass inspections. Agents like Hari Prasad, Krishna Kishore, and Ankam Rambabu set up dummy employees for colleges in Visakhapatnam and Warangal as part of the scam, which also involves Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
It is also anticipated that important suspects from southern India will be questioned. According to the CBI, insiders from the Health Ministry, Poonam Meena, Dharamvir, Piyush Malyan, Anup Jaiswal, Rahul Srivastava, Deepak, Manisha, and Chandan Kumar, leaked sensitive documents that made this "fraudulent network" possible.
These records made it possible for organisations to set up fictitious scenes before inspections. The agency anticipates making more arrests and questioning everyone involved as the investigation spreads to more states.
