Court to start hearing arguments on charges against Ramadoss

Special Judge Talwant Singh had on September 12 fixed for tomorrow the hearing on arguments on charges on a day-to-day against Ramadoss and nine others.

Ramadoss has been charge sheeted by the CBI for allegedly abusing his official position in permitting Indore-based Index Medical College Hospital and Research Centre (IMCHRC) to admit students without having sufficient faculty members and clinical infrastructure in 2009.

Besides Ramadoss, the other nine accused in the case are Cabinet Secretariat Director K V S Rao, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's (MHFW) Section Officer Sudershan Kumar and Dr J S Dhupia and Dr Dipendra Kumar Gupta of Safdarjung Hospital.

Accused Dr S K Tongia, former dean of IMCHRC, Medical Director of the college Dr K K Saxena as also Nitin Gothwal and Dr Pawan Bhambani are also named as accused.

Chairman of IMCHRC, Suresh Singh Bhadoria, is also an accused in the case. All the accused are out on bail.

Ramadoss was the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare from May 2004 to April 2009 in UPA-I government.

According to the CBI's charge sheet, Ramadoss and others conspired to allow IMCHRC conduct admission for second year despite the fact that the Medical Council of India (MCI) and a committee appointed by the Supreme Court had "repeatedly recommended" that IMCHRC was not having sufficient faculty and clinical material required as per MCI norms.