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New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has unearthed a bribery racket at Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital in Delhi, where doctors and several other employees of the government hospital were collecting bribes from patients and medical equipment suppliers, people familiar with the development said.
The agency arrested nine persons, including doctors, clerks of RML and private middlemen and medical equipment suppliers after carrying out searches at around 15 locations, including the hospital on Wednesday, people mentioned above said.
In its first information report (FIR) filed on Tuesday, the federal agency has named a professor and an assistant professor of the cardiology department of RML, a senior technical in-charge, a nurse, two clerks, several private medical equipment supplier companies and unknown government servants.
This is the second such bribery scandal unearthed in a top government hospital in Delhi. Earlier, in March last year, the CBI arrested a Safdarjung Hospital neurosurgeon, Dr Manish Rawat, along with his four accomplices for allegedly forcing patients to buy surgical equipment from a particular establishment at exorbitant prices.
Among those named by CBI in its RML bribery case include Dr Parvathgouda (assistant professor, cardiology department), Dr Ajay Raj (professor in cardiology), Rajnish Kumar (senior technical in-charge, Cath Lab at RML), Shalu Shama (nurse), Bhuwal Jaiswal and Sanjay Kumar Gupta (both clerks), and five private persons who represented four medical equipment companies, have also been named as accused.
All have been charged with criminal conspiracy and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
“Information has been received through a reliable source that several doctors and the employees of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi, have been indulging in corrupt practices and collecting bribes from the patients either directly or indirectly through the medical/supplier representatives of the companies supplying different equipment required for diagnosis and treatment of various patients,” states the CBI FIR.
The agency has listed instances of Dr Parvathgouda and Dr Raj demanding and accepting bribes from private suppliers identified as Naresh Nagpal, Abrar Ahmed, Akarshan Gulati, Monika Sinha and Bharat Singh Dalal for either allowing the use of medical equipment supplied by them or for promoting their equipment.
About Bhuwal Jaiswal, the clerk, and nurse Shalu Sharma, the CBI has alleged they are also involved in corrupt and illegal activities and “are in habit of demanding undue advantage from patients for facilitating appointments, admission, and investigation in the hospital,” according to the FIR.
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