Court sends nine accused to five days CBI remand for bribery racket in Delhi’s RML Hospital

New Delhi [India], May 9 (ANI): The Rouse Avenue Court of Delhi has sent nine arrested accused to five days CBI remand in relation to bribery racket at Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital, including professors and technical in charge of the cardiology department of the healthcare facility.

The Special Judge Prashant Kumar in an order passed on May 8, said, “I am of the opinion that as the matter is at the initial stage of investigation and thorough detailed custodial interrogation of the accused persons is required not only to confront various documents but to extract information regarding other accused persons and their arrest as well, therefore, police custody/remand should be granted.”

“Therefore, in the interest of justice, I deem it appropriate that police custody/remand for five days be granted at this stage. Therefore, all nine accused persons are accordingly remanded to police custody/remand and will be produced now on May 14, the court added.

Advocates Rajiv Mohan, Chirag Madan, Shashank Bajpai, Vidula Mehrotra and several others appeared for different accused persons in the matter.

Recently, the CBI filed an FIR implicating several doctors and employees of RML, accusing them of accepting bribes from patients and medical equipment suppliers.

The CBI stated that among the nine arrested, are two professors and assistant professors from the cardiology department of RML.

“A senior technical in-charge, a nurse, two clerks from the hospital, along with the representatives from five private medical equipment supplier companies are also among the accused in the FIR. The CBI conducted searches at 15 locations as part of its investigation,” the agency said.

The accused have been charged with “criminal conspiracy” and violations of the Prevention of Corruption Act. As per the allegations, the doctors and hospital staff took bribes directly or indirectly through representatives of medical equipment companies in exchange for various favours, including promoting their equipment or facilitating its use in the hospital.

The clerks and nurses were allegedly demanding undue advantages from patients for facilitating appointments and admissions.

“A doctor allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 1.95 lakh from a supplier named Abrar Ahmed, which was transferred to his father’s account. Later, the accused doctor again contacted the supplier to expedite the payment of all pending bribe amounts as he was planning to leave for Europe on a personal tour,” the FIR stated.