BENGALURU: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday afternoon raided the Railway Health Unit near Mangaluru Central station and arrested three individuals including the Additional Chief Medical Superintendent for their alleged involvement in a fake medical certificate scam.
The racket had been going on for over a year and the doctor here has issued certificates for individuals from Southern Railway, South Western Railway and the Konkan Railway. More than 1,500 bogus medical certificates have been issued so far.
According to sources, three individuals, Additional Chief Medical Superintendent, Dr Shiva Shankar Murthy, pharmacist Vijayan V A and broker Ibrahim were arrested by the CBI. A huge CBI team is still carrying out raids inside the health unit. A total of 1500 pages of documents have been seized by CBI officers in this connection.
Sharing details, a top source said hundreds of licensed vendors, porters, housekeeping staff at platforms and caterers on board trains must mandatorily submit Fitness Medical certificates annually to Railways to be permitted to work here.
It is here that the Mangaluru Railway unit came in handy. "With the help of a broker, those at the health unit received the Aadhaar card document of anyone requiring a medical certificate through WhatsApp. They issued a medical certificate immediately to the person in question by the same method. A payment of Rs 525 was collected from the person through online payment modes," the source revealed.
It is completely illegal to issue a medical certificate like this without any checks being carried out on the individual and it is considered a bogus one, the source added.
Despite SR and SWR having railway hospitals, many from there opted to get their fitness certificate from the Mangaluru Health unit, another source pointed out.
"Why is someone from Tiruchirappalli or Bengaluru or Hubballi opting to get a medical certificate from a Mangaluru Railway health unit only? The reason is obvious cos however bad one's health is, the certificate is assured," the source said.
The CBI had been on the case for quite some time and they nabbed those responsible today after making an individual from Bengaluru request for a medical certificate, he added. Further investigations are on.