Graft case against Anbumani Ramadoss: HC sets aside order to frame charges

The Delhi High Court on Monday set aside a trial court's decision ordering framing of charges against former Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss and several others in two corruption cases for allegedly showing favours to medical colleges.

Justice I S Mehta quashed the October 7, 2015 order of the lower court which had ordered framing of charges against Ramadoss and others for various alleged offences including criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery for the purpose of cheating and using forged documents as genuine under the IPC and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act relating to public servant abusing official position.

Ramadoss, Union Health Minister from May 2004 till April 2009 in the UPA-I government, was represented through senior advocate Mukul Gupta and advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey.

The high court remanded back the case to the trial court with a direction to hear the matter afresh. It listed the matter before the trial court on August 19.

The trial court had said that the PMK leader had "criminally conspired" with other accused and abused his authority.

The two graft cases relate to alleged favours shown by Ramadoss and other accused to a private medical college, Rohilkhand Medical College and Hospital (RMCH), Bareilly, in Uttar Pradesh and Indore-based Index Medical College Hospital and Research Centre (IMCHRC).

The accused were chargesheeted for allegedly showing favours to RMCH in grant of renewal for admissions in MBBS course in 2008-09.

Ramadoss, along with others, was also chargesheeted in the other similar case here relating to allegedly abusing his official position in allowing IMCHRC to go ahead with admissions without having sufficient faculty and clinical material.

In the case of IMCHRC, apart from Ramadoss, the trial court had ordered framing of charges against then deputy secretary in the Health and Family Welfare Ministry KVS Rao, college chairman S S Bhadoria, its employees Nitin Gothwal and Pawan Bhambhani.

It had said they were prima facie found to have committed the offences under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC read with section 13(2) and 13(1)(d) (abuse of power by public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) of IPC.

The court, however, had discharged Safdarjung Hospital's doctors J S Dhupia and Dipendra Kumar Gupta, the then section officer in Ministry of Health and family Welfare Sudershan Kumar, IMCHRC Director K K Saxena and faculty S K Tongia.

In the RMCH case, besides Ramadoss and Rao, the court had ordered framing of charges against college chairman K K Aggarwal.

While the accused had challenged in the high court the order to frame charges against them, the CBI had challenged the same order by which some of the accused were discharged in the case.

The corruption case was transferred from Lucknow to Delhi by the Supreme Court which had allowed the plea of PMK leader Ramadoss seeking shifting of the trial to Patiala House Court here.