India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has uncovered what it has described as one of the largest medical education scams in the country’s history, implicating senior officials, educationists, middlemen and a self-styled godman.
The alleged scam, which stretches across multiple Indian states, centres around the manipulation of medical college inspections to secure illegal approvals, with crores of rupees exchanged through banking and hawala routes.
The probe initially began with a small bribery case involving the Godman Sri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (SRIMSR) in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
The CBI arrested six individuals, including three doctors, for allegedly accepting ₹55 lakh to provide a favourable inspection report. Investigators recovered ₹38.38 lakh from the aide of the inspection team’s head and another ₹16.62 lakh from a team member’s residence.
Officials said the entire transaction was coordinated via hawala networks and distributed amongst the inspection team.
As investigations expanded, the CBI registered a First Information Report (FIR) naming 35 individuals.
These include former University Grants Commission chairman and current Tata Institute of Social Sciences chancellor DP Singh, retired IFS officer and former Chhattisgarh RERA chairman Sanjay Shukla, and self-styled godman Ravishankar Maharaj, also known as Rawatpura Sarkar.
Shukla, who previously served as the state’s Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, is a trustee of the Rawatpura group.
The FIR also includes names such as Suresh Singh Bhadoria of Index Medical College in Indore, alongside several ministry officials and agents. Only one arrest — that of college director Atul Tiwari — has been made so far.
The investigation has revealed that dummy faculty, fake inspection reports, and forged documents were used to deceive the National Medical Commission (NMC) into granting approvals to underqualified institutions.
The scam spans from Rajasthan, Indore and Gurgaon to Warangal and Visakhapatnam, with over 40 med colleges in suspicion of securing approval using bribes and false or half information.
The inclusion of Rawatpura Sarkar in the FIR has caused a stir due to his long-standing ties with influential politicians and bureaucrats.
Often seen in photographs with IAS and IPS officers, he has been accused in the past of land encroachments, running unauthorised institutions, forcing students into religious participation, and harassing female followers in his ashrams.
Despite previous human rights probes, these allegations never resulted in prosecution until now.
Critics have long accused the Rawatpura trust of receiving undue advantages from government schemes, road projects and electricity subsidies — claims which the trust has consistently denied.
The CBI also stumbled upon a parallel operation at Index Medical College in Indore, where ghost faculty were allegedly deployed, biometric attendance systems forged, and fake experience certificates issued to fool NMC inspectors.
Investigators believe Bhadoria and Rawatpura Sarkar, both originally from Lahar in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind district, formed a powerful nexus that collected between ₹3 crore and ₹5 crore per institution in exchange for NMC approvals, regardless of compliance or infrastructure.
The racket has also revealed a complex system of info leaks as well as internal sabotage. Officials in New Delhi were allegedly photographing confidential files and sending them via WhatsApp to agents, who then shared the details with college management.
Key players in this network are Virendra Kumar of Gurgaon, Manisha Joshi of Dwarka, and the registrar of Geetanjali University in Udaipur, Mayur Raval.
One of the most important information in the FIR is the alleged role of Jitu Lal Meena, a former full-time member of the Medical Assessment and Rating Board.
Meena is accused of acting as a chief middleman who not only facilitated bribes but also allegedly used a portion of the illicit funds — nearly ₹75 lakh — to construct a Hanuman temple in Rajasthan.
In southern India, the CBI has found further evidence of dummy faculty and fake patients being presented during NMC inspections.
Andhra-based agent B Hari Prasad, along with his associates Ankam Rambabu in Hyderabad and Krishna Kishore in Visakhapatnam, arranged for these fake display of information.
In one of the instances, Kishore had accepted ₹50 lakh from the director of Gayatri Medical College, while the Father Colombo Institute of Medical Sciences in Warangal reportedly paid over ₹4 crore for a fraudulent clearance. Investigators believe these bribes were routed through official bank channels to make them appear legitimate.
Follow us
