Times of India: Vadodara: Wednesday, March 13, 2013.
City police
have lodged an FIR against Gujarat government's additional director of medical
education and research Dr P D Vithalani for allegedly swindling government
grants worth Rs 250 crore meant to purchase medical equipment for colleges.
The FIR was
registered in Gotri police station on Monday night following directions of the
district sessions court. Complainant Dr Amalkumar Bhattacharya, a city-based
doctor, has alleged that the state government had granted Rs 550 crore for
buying medical equipment. Vithalani, who was member secretary of Gujarat
Medical Education Research Society (GMERS) in 2010, had the authority to spend
the amount, according to the FIR.
"Vithalani
connived with sellers and passed tenders with higher prices despite getting
tenders of lower amounts. He got monetary benefit from the deal and according
to our information the money swindled could be to the tune of Rs 250
crore," according to the FIR.
"The
tenders were cancelled later. We got all this information under the right to
information (RTI) laws," Bhattacharya said. Vithalani could not be reached
for comments despite several attempts.
The complaint
also states that Vithalani issued bogus certificates to doctors to make them
eligible for higher posts and also ignored wrongdoings of few medicos for
financial gains.
"Bhattacharya
tried to register a complaint against Vithalani in May last year at Gotri
police station but the cops sent it to Gorwa citing jurisdiction issues. But
Gorwa cops again sent it to Gotri," said Bhattacharya's advocate Jagdish
Ramani
"Gotri
police then sent it to Gandhinagar sector 21 police station, which sent the
application back to Vadodara police commissioner in August 2012. We then
approached the court seeking directions to the cops to register FIR. But the
plea was rejected," Ramani added. "We then filed review petition in
court of district sessions judge which heard our arguments and directed the
police to register FIR," Ramani said.
Gotri
in-charge police inspector R L Sanghani said, "We will go through the
documents submitted by the complainant while registering the complaint. Some
part of the complaint is related to administrative decisions."
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