Special Dri Task Force To Probe Medical Scam
Health secretary P P Cha-uhan and revenue secretary N K Singh told a division bench consisting of Justices Y K Sabharwal and D K Jain that the court will be informed about the task the DRI officials will assigned on October 3.
Singh said the priority of the DRI team would be to recover the customs duty allegedly exempted for some hospitals by fudging documents. The hospitals were said to have obtained false duty exemption certificates from the director-general of health services.
Chauhan and Singh had been asked to be present in persons following the Delhi High Court order on September 13.
The judges wanted the task force to be headed by a person who has prior experience in handling such cases.
The bench cautioned the revenue secretary to keep in mind the involvement of high officials while constituting the task force.
Singh said one of the priorities of the task force would be to place criminal liability on the officials who deliberately allowed the irregularities to take place.
Singh express-ed his fears that the five-year period in which the customs duty was recoverable might get over and said the Directorateof Revenue Intelligence has to act fast to identify the cases.
Last month, a report by health ministry joint secretary K Chandramouli had said Shankaranand was directly involved in the irregularities.
The report said there was large-scale corruption and collusion, neglect and callous indifference