Dr Shaileshkumar Amrutlal Anand, the former General Manager of Gujarat’s Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana-Mukhyamantri Amrutam (PMJAY-MA) scheme, has been arrested along with two others by Ahmedabad’s Detection of Crime Branch (DCB).
His transfer from the prominent role in the national health insurance scheme to a village occurred just two days after a multi-crore scam was uncovered at Ahmedabad-based Khyati Multispeciality Hospital.
In addition to being charged with forgery and criminal breach of trust, Dr Anand, Nikhil Ghanshyam Parekh and Milap Ramesh Patel were detained on December 26 on allegation of conspiring to approve PM-JAY cards for individuals who were not entitled to receive benefits under the scheme.
The accused were remanded for three days by the local court on Friday.
Health department officials suspected Dr Anand of being involved in the alleged PM-JAY scam, which led to his relocation from Gandhinagar headquarters to the Community Health Centre (CHC) in Vaso village in Kheda district two days after it was made public in Ahmedabad earlier this year.
On December 17, the DCB registered a case against Nimesh Dilip Dodiya, who managed the PM-JAY desk at Khyati Hospital, along with Mohammadfazal Mohammadaslam Shaikh, Narendrasinh Dharmendrasinh Gohil, Imtiaz Kader Havez and Imran Jabirhussain Karigar. All of them were arrested the same day and remained in police custody until December 21.
Along with two Khyati Hospital directors, Chairman Kartik Patel and Director Chirag Rajput, these accused were charged with exploiting the website’s technical shortcomings, changing the source code and creating unauthorised PM-JAY beneficiary cards through three other portals.
The Crime Branch stated in a statement on Friday that the police had contacted Patel, who was employed in the PM-JAY division of the Gujarat health department within the State Health Agency (SHA), while questioning Dodiya and Mohammadfazal Shaikh.
According to the Crime Branch, Patel approved the KYC procedures for those beneficiaries who did not even meet 80% of the scheme’s eligibility requirements, all with the knowledge of his former supervisor, Dr Anand, who had Level-1 access. Additionally, it was claimed that Rajput of Khyati Hospital sent these KYC requests straight to Dr Anand.
According to the statement released on Friday, Parekh, who was already the subject of a Crime Branch investigation, worked for Enser Communication Private Limited and had obtained unauthorised Level-1 access from his Gujarat head Jitendra Kahar, allowing him to approve KYC requests from “dubious card claimants.”
Additionally, Parekh is suspected of providing the access credentials to Narendrasinh Dharmendrasinh Gohil, another accused person who was earlier arrested in connection with the case.
With Level-1 access to the scheme, Enser Communication has a government contract to create Ayushman Bharat cards.
Although the Crime Branch had previously claimed that it believed 1,200–1,500 beneficiary cards were forged by the accused, it noted on Friday that this figure may be changed since the investigation will likely concentrate on determining the true number of individuals who had unauthorised access to the Level-1.
Additionally, the investigation will examine the span of time the racket has been in operation and whether additional high-ranking government officials were involved in the fraud.
Sections 316(2) (criminal breach of trust), 316(5) (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 336(3) (forgery), 340(2) (using forged documents as genuine), and 3(5) (common intent to commit a crime) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) have been utilised to charge all of the accused in the December 17 FIR at the DCB police station.
Sections 66(c) and 66(d) of the Information Technology Act were also used to book them.
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