A doctor affiliated with Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS) in Mumbai, who had been implicated in a money laundering case, has returned Rs 1 crore to the facility.
This decision came in response to a police investigation into the case that was initiated last year, as revealed by a probe conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The accused doctor, Dr. Hemant Gupta, was embroiled in a money laundering probe linked to the Covid center case, which revolved around the contract awarded to LHMS by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). In the previous month, the ED filed a chargesheet against six individuals, as well as LHMS as an entity, for their involvement in fraudulent activities and a conspiracy. The chargesheet unveiled that the BMC had disbursed approximately Rs 32 crore for the contracts, and Dr. Gupta had received a share of Rs 2.85 crore.
The chargesheet indicated that the six accused secured the contract for operating Covid jumbo centers from the BMC in August. Dr. Gupta is one of the four partners at LHMS, which had acquired contracts from the BMC to supply manpower for the Covid jumbo centers located in Dahisar and Worli. The chargesheet also named two other civic doctors alongside Dr. Gupta.
According to the chargesheet, Dr. Gupta, along with the main accused, Sujit Patkar, and others, had acquired the contract for running the two Jumbo Covid centers but operated them with only 40 percent of the necessary staff. The investigative agency alleged that 60 percent of the staff existed only on paper and never provided services, thereby jeopardizing the lives of patients in the Covid centers.
Furthermore, the ED claimed that the contract was fraudulently obtained from the BMC, and the bills submitted contained fabricated entries for medical staff and doctors who either did not exist or never worked at the two Covid jumbo centers.
Dr. Gupta’s inclusion as a partner in LHMS, due to his expertise in the medical field, enabled the utilization of his name to secure the contract and operate Covid jumbo centers. The chargesheet asserted that Dr. Gupta “never effectively rendered his services in running the Covid centers by LHMS.” “He (Dr. Gupta) did not prioritize safeguarding the interests of patients in Covid centers; instead, he allowed all the irregularities concerning the under-deployment of medical staff for personal financial gains derived from the proceeds of crime generated by the accused firm through under-deployment of staff,” alleged the ED chargesheet. The prime accused, Sujit Patkar, had invoked the name of Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, a close acquaintance, to gain access to Additional Commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal, who was associated with the BMC at the time and was conducting meetings related to Covid jumbo centers. Nevertheless, Patkar asserted that he did not use Raut’s name to communicate with Jaiswal.
