Safdarjung hospital’s Dr Manish Rawat, arrested by the CBI on Friday for allegedly taking bribes from a drug store and forcing patients to purchase medical equipment from it at inflated prices, spent the bribe money on tours and the purchase of sarees for his wife.
An associate professor in the neurosurgery department at Delhi’s prestigious Safdarjung hospital, Dr Rawat is also accused of taking unauthorized money from patients by bypassing the hospital rules. Apart from him, store owner Deepak Khattar, and middlemen Avnesh Patel, Manish Sharma, and Kuldeep were also arrested.
As per the CBI, Avnesh Patel used to make payments to third parties on the direction of Dr Rawat and his wife Khusbu Rawat. “A source has also informed Patel transferred ₹1 lakh to Rajesh, a tour operator, for making arrangements for his travel to Kerala as per his direction,” reads the FIR registered by the agency.
“Source has also informed that on March 26, Patel, on the direction of Khusbu transferred an amount of ₹19,000 to a QR code sent by her for purchasing sarees,” it alleged.
Quoting a “reliable source”, the bureau claimed Dr Rawat in a criminal conspiracy with Kanishka Surgical proprietor Khattar and his employee Kuldeep and Sharma, and Patel – all acting as middlemen were involved in the syndicate unearthed by the Central investigative agency.
The accused neurosurgeon directed his patients through these middlemen to purchase instruments required for surgeries from Khattar’s shop Kanishka Surgical and compelled them to pay an amount for those instruments many fold higher than the actual price.
“Therefore, Dr Rawat obtained undue advantage by getting a share in the overbilling by the shop of Khattar, Kanishka Surgical,” the FIR reads.
As part of their modus operandi, Patel would contact patients’ attendees on the behalf of Dr Rawat and explain to them that he could manage an appointment if they pay a bribe and agree to procure instruments required for surgery from Khattar’s shop.
“The source has also informed that Patel asked them to deposit the money either in cash to Sharma or Kuldeep, both employees of Khattar or ask them to transfer it online to given mobile numbers linked to the bank accounts of Kuldeep or Khattar,” the FIR stated.
It further said that Patel, in criminal conspiracy with Dr Rawat, Sharma and Kuldeep, forcefully took money from the attendees of patients suffering from acute medical conditions for arranging for them an early date for the required surgery and thereafter, the timings for the surgery was decided by Dr Rawat.
“Patel then delivered the money received from attendants of the patients to Dr Rawat personally in cash or sent money to others as per directions of Dr Rawat after collecting the same from Sharma, Kuldeep or Khattar,” it alleged.
Citing the transfers of money, the CBI said that on March 10 this year, Patel in criminal conspiracy with Dr Rawat contacted Simran Kaur, an attendant of patient Ajeet Singh and informed her that the patient has cervical issues and he needs spinal surgery and got transferred ₹1,15,500 to Kuldeep’s account with J&K Bank.
March 14, Patel obtained alleged bribes of ₹25,000 and ₹30,000 from the attendants of patients namely Madan Lal and Shyamu Lal respectively and confirmed Dr Rawat about the collection.
On March 14 itself, Sharma with Dr Rawat and others, got transferred ₹30,000 in Kuldeep’s account from Syed Atif Ali, the attendant of a patient named Mohammad Syed Hasan Ali, the CBI said.
Dr Rawat has been laundering illegally earned money through companies, being managed by Ganesh Chandra, a private person and a resident of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, it alleged.
On March 22, Chandra asked Dr Rawat to direct Patel to send the payment of registration charges of shell companies and a day later Patel informed Chandra that he would transfer the money after obtaining the same from some patients, the CBI said.
The CBI also said that its source revealed that Patel in a criminal conspiracy with Dr Rawat collected ₹35,000 in cash from a patient named Gauri Shankar and on the direction of Dr Rawat, transferred ₹34,500 from his account maintained with State Bank of India to Chandra which was also confirmed by Chandra.
“Source information further revealed that Patel assured Chandra to send the remaining amount in a couple of days after collecting the same from some other patients,” the CBI alleged.