COIMBATORE: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)on Wednesday arrested the chartered accountant of Ganga Hospital in Coimbatore, and booked cases against hospital chairman Dr S Rajasekaran and another auditor on charges of bribing home ministry officials to renew licence of their NGO.
The FIR registered by the CBI's anti-corruption bureau in New Delhi on May 10 names 37 persons, including Dr Rajesekaran and some employees of the Union home ministry who were earlier serving in the FCRA division, as accused.
Vageesh (31), the chartered accountant, has been booked for criminal conspiracy and demand, taking undue advantage to influence public servants by corrupt or illegal means. He has been named as the ninth accused while Dr Rajasekaran and auditor Suguna Ravichandran are named as 8th and 10th accused respectively.
According to the FIR, the hospital management, which runs Ganga Orthopedic Research and Education Foundation (GOREF), an NGO, had allegedly authorised Vageesh to pay `2 lakh as bribe to Parmod Kumar Bhasin, who had worked as officer in the Union home ministry’s FCRA division in New Delhi, to renew licence.
On 4 April, Parmod Kumar, first accused in the case, approached Dr Rajasekaran claiming that he would get the licence renewed and demanded `2 lakh. Rajasekaran allegedly directed him to contact Vageesh.
After a negotiation, involving another auditor Suguna Ravichandran, they allegedly paid him Rs 1.5 lakh on April 7 through a hawala network. The remaining `50,000 was to be paid after getting the licence renewed.
The ministry got a tip about the dealing and CBI started investigating the case. Sources said the agency found out that several NGOs had bribed him for licence renewal. So far, 37 people have been booked across the country under sections 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine any document or electronic record) of IPC and sections 7, 7A and 8 of Prevention of Corruption Act.
Vageesh was produced before the special court for CBI cases in Coimbatore on Wednesday and taken to New Delhi.