Crores In Bribes, Top Officials And A Godman In India's Biggest Medical Scam

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has unearthed what it describes as one of the largest medical college scams in the country's history, spanning across multiple states, involving senior officials, middlemen, top educationists, and even a self-styled godman. 

In this sensational CBI probe exposing the rot in India's medical education system, a nationwide bribery racket has come to light-implicating top names like DP Singh (former UGC Chairman and current TISS Chancellor), self-styled godman Rawatpura Sarkar, Suresh Singh Bhadoria of Indore's Index Medical College, and a vast network of officials and middlemen. 

The CBI has named 35 individuals in its FIR, including retired IFS officer Sanjay Shukla, who also served as the chairman of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA). Shukla, a former head of the Chhattisgarh Forest Department and PCCF, is linked to the Rawatpura group in the role of a trustee. However, so far, only one person --director Atul Tiwari -- has been arrested in the case

Dummy faculty, fake inspections, and leaked files were part of this multi-crore scam that stretched from Rajasthan, Gurgaon and Indore to Warangal and Visakhapatnam, with crores exchanged through hawala and banking routes -- all to secure illegal approvals for substandard medical colleges. 

The alleged racket also implicates officials from the Ministry of Health.

The Probe

The investigation began with a bribe-for-inspection case at Sri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (SRIMSR) in Raipur, where six individuals, including three doctors, were arrested after allegedly accepting Rs 55 lakh to issue a favourable inspection report. 

The CBI caught the doctors red-handed, recovering Rs 38.38 lakh from an aide of the inspection team head and Rs 16.62 lakh from another official's residence. According to the CBI, the entire bribe was planned, collected via hawala routes, and distributed among the team.

But what started in Raipur quickly ballooned into a national scandal.

The Godman

The inclusion of Rawatpura Sarkar, also known as Ravishankar Maharaj, in the FIR has drawn attention due to his long-standing ties with top politicians, ministers, and bureaucrats. Often referred to as the "Baba close to power," his photographs with IAS, IPS officers and elected representatives have gone viral on social media.

Critics allege his trust received undue favours in government schemes, road access projects, and even electricity subsidies-accusations the trust has always denied.

This is not the first time Rawatpura Sarkar has courted controversy. His trust has been accused of land encroachments, running unapproved colleges, forcing students into religious participation, and even mental harassment of female followers inside ashrams. Human rights commissions have probed these cases, but few reached formal prosecution stages, until now.

Sources say more than 40 medical colleges across India may have obtained their recognition using bribery, falsified records, and manipulated inspections.

A Parallel Operation

As the probe widened, the CBI stumbled upon a parallel operation running out of Index Medical College in Indore, where officials allegedly deployed ghost faculty, forged biometric attendance, and even issued fake experience certificates to deceive National Medical College (NMC) assessors. Investigators believe that Bhadoria and Rawatpura Sarkar-both originally from Lahar in Madhya Pradesh's Bhind district-had formed a powerful nexus, charging Rs 3 to 5 crore from private institutions across India to guarantee NMC recognition, irrespective of merit or infrastructure.

This wasn't a standalone fraud. The CBI found a deep-rooted network of information leaks, dummy inspections, bribery, and criminal conspiracy involving multiple layers of the regulatory system. Officials in New Delhi were allegedly photographing internal files and WhatsApping them to agents, who in turn informed college managements in advance.

Among the recipients of this confidential data were Virendra Kumar of Gurgaon, Manisha Joshi of Dwarka, and representatives of several private institutions, including the Registrar of Geetanjali University in Udaipur, Mayur Raval.

At the heart of this information racket was Jitu Lal Meena, a former full-time member of the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB), who, according to the FIR, acted as a key middleman and used his influence to extract bribes. In one shocking discovery, the CBI said a portion of these illicit funds was allegedly used by Meena to build a Hanuman temple in Rajasthan at a cost of Rs 75 lakh.

The Southern Angle 

The CBI has uncovered how B Hari Prasad, an agent from Kadiri in Andhra Pradesh, along with partners Ankam Rambabu in Hyderabad and Krishna Kishore in Visakhapatnam, arranged for dummy faculty and fake patients to be presented during NMC inspections. 

In one case, Krishna Kishore reportedly collected Rs 50 lakh from the director of Gayatri Medical College, while institutions like Father Colombo Institute of Medical Sciences in Warangal paid over Rs 4 crore to secure clearances, with bribes routed through official bank channels to appear legitimate.