CBI Busts ₹75 Lakh Bribe-for-Seat Scam: 6 Medical Colleges Lose Approval, 1,400 Seats Under Scrutiny

CBI has registered an FIR against 35 individuals, including senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, members of the National Medical Commission.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has uncovered a massive corruption racket involving the leak of internal Health Ministry documents and inspection schedules, which were allegedly shared with private medical colleges in exchange for bribes and preferential regulatory treatment.

The agency has registered an FIR against 35 individuals, including senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, members of the National Medical Commission (NMC), and intermediaries linked to several private institutions. 

According to the CBI, officials with official access to sensitive regulatory information were using personal phones to capture and share files and notings from internal ministry workflows. These documents were then passed to agents acting on behalf of colleges, enabling them to prepare fake compliance, admit ghost faculty and fictitious patients, manipulate biometric attendance systems, and stage inspections.

An internal probe identified rampant misuse of regulatory power to expedite approvals for substandard institutions. In several cases, colleges granted approval despite failing to meet fundamental infrastructure and faculty norms. 

Key figures named in the FIR include Dr. Jitu Lal Meena, a joint director at the National Health Authority and NMC board member with Gujarat roots and Dr. Virendra Kumar, who orchestrated bribes through hawala channels.

Following CBI's findings, the NMC has blacklisted four inspectors and cancelled the seat approvals of six implicated medical colleges for the academic year 2025–26.

The FIR was filed on June 30 under criminal conspiracy, cheating, breach of secrecy, and corruption statutes under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 61(2) and Prevention of Corruption Act.

Raids have been conducted across more than 40 locations spanning Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and Delhi. 

According to CBI, the scam enabled dozens of medical colleges to gain approvals that they did not deserve. Standard tactics included using fictitious patients, ghost faculty, leaked inspector information, and bribed regulators.