A cardiologist's hurry to collect bribes from middlemen and medical suppliers before going on a trip to Europe gave the CBI a whiff of a bribery racket at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, leading to the arrest of nine people, including two doctors, on Wednesday.

The CBI arrested nine people, including cardiology Professor Ajay Raj and Assistant Professor Parvatagouda Channappagouda, clerks Bhuval Jaiswal and Sanjay Kumar, the hospital's Cath Lab in charge Rajnish Kumar, middleman Vikas Kumar, and medial equipment suppliers Naresh Nagpal of Nagpal Technologies, Bharat Singh Dalal of Bharti Medical Technologies, and Abrar Ahmed of Scienmed, officials said.

All of them were produced before a special court which sent them to CBI custody till May 14 for further interrogation. More medical suppliers and hospital staff are under scanner and may be arrested soon, they said.

The CBI FIR into the alleged bribery racket operational at multiple levels in the prestigious hospital flags multiple instances of corruption. It claimed that clerks and nurses threatened to throw out a pregnant woman if Rs 20,000 was not paid to Raj and Channappagouda, who were allegedly taking lakhs from medical equipment suppliers.

The agency has named 11 individuals and four firms in the FIR, including six hospital employees, a middleman, and four medical equipment suppliers.

The CBI FIR alleged that Raj and Parvatagouda were collecting bribes from medical equipment and stent suppliers to recommend their products to the patients under treatment at the government hospital.

The agency has alleged that Parvatagouda had asked medical suppliers to pay the bribes he was supposed to get as early as possible. On May 2, he asked Nagpal to pay a bribe amount of Rs 2.48 lakh, which the latter assured would be done by Tuesday.

It claimed that Parvatagouda also asked Ahmed on April 23 to pay all bribes as soon as possible because he was going on a Europe trip during summer vacation. Ahmed had earlier made the payment of Rs 1.95 lakh in an account operated by Parvatagouda's father, Basant Gauda, in March, the CBI alleged.

He allegedly made a similar demand to another medical supplier, Akarshan Gulati who told the doctor that one of his employees would make the payments. Parvatagouda contacted the employee and asked her to pay Rs 36,000 through UPI and the remaining in cash, the probe agency said.

The FIR also lists several payments allegedly made to cardiologist Ajay Raj by Bharat Singh Dalal of Bharti Medical Technologies.

The FIR said clerk Sanjay Kumar was issuing fake medical certificates to people, charging Rs 100 for recommending a day's rest. The agency report cites four instances where he collected Rs 700 for fake medical certificates recommending seven days' rest, Rs 300 for three days' rest, and Rs 500 for five days' rest.

Another clerk, Bhuwal Jaiswal, and a nurse, Shalu, had allegedly threatened a man that they would throw out his pregnant wife if Rs 20,000 were not paid to them. The nurse had threatened that she would stop the treatment of his wife and discharge her, the FIR alleged, adding that the man paid the amount through UPI.

The agency also alleged that Jaiswal habitually collected bribes from patients to fix appointments and extend favours to them.

The hospital's Cath Lab in charge Rajnish Kumar had asked Abrar Ahmed of Scienmed to pay Rs 1 lakh for recommending his firm's equipment to patients. They said the payment was allegedly made in Kumar's father's account, the CBI alleged in the FIR.

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