Fake beneficiary cards ‘scam’: Former General Manager of PMJAY Gujarat among 3 held

Two days after the alleged PMJAY racket was exposed in Ahmedabad earlier this year, Dr Anand was transferred from the Gandhinagar headquarters to the Community Health Centre (CHC) in Vaso village of Kheda district after health department officials suspected his role in the alleged racket.

On December 17, the DCB had filed a case against Nimesh Dileep Dodiya, who handled the PMJAY desk at Khyati Multispeciality Hospital, along with Mohammadfazal Mohammadaslam Shaikh, Mohammadaspaq Mohammadakram Shaikh, Narendrasinh Dharmendrasinh Gohil, Imtiaz Kader Havez, and Imran Jabirhussain Karigar. They were all arrested on the same day and remained in police custody till December 21.

These accused persons, along with two directors of Khyati Hospital, Chairman Kartik Jasu Patel and Director Chirag Hirasingh Rajput, were accused of abusing the technical vulnerabilities of the website, altering the source code, and using three other portals to make illegal PMJAY beneficiary cards.

In a statement on Friday, the Crime Branch said that during the interrogation of Dodiya and Mohammadfazal Shaikh, the police learnt that they had come in touch with Patel, who worked in the PMJAY section of the Gujarat health department in the State Health Agency (SHA).

The Crime Branch alleged that Patel, with the full knowledge of his then boss, Dr Anand, who had Level-1 access, gave approval to the KYC processes of those beneficiaries as well who did not match even 80% eligibility criteria of the scheme. Further, it was alleged that Dr Anand received such KYC requests directly from Rajput of Khyati Hospital.

With regard to Parekh, who was already under investigation by the Crime Branch, the statement on Friday said that he was an employee of Enser Communication Private Limited and had taken illegal Level-1 access from his Gujarat head Jitendra Kahar through which he had been approving KYC requests of such “dubious card claimants”. Further, Parekh is alleged to have also given the access codes to another accused, Narendrasinh Dharmendrasinh Gohil, who was earlier arrested in the case.

Enser Communication has the government contract to make Ayushman Bharat cards for which it has Level-1 access to the scheme.
While the Crime Branch had earlier stated that it suspected 1,200-1,500 beneficiary cards to have been forged by the accused, on Friday it said this number might be revised with investigation likely to be focused on how many people actually had illegal access to the Level-1.

Besides, the probe will look into how long the racket has been in operation and if other senior officials of the government were involved in the scam. All the accused have been booked as part of the December 17 FIR at DCB police station under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 316(2) (criminal breach of trust), 316(5) (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 336(3) (forgery), 340(2) (using forged documents as genuine), and 3(5) (common intent to commit a crime). They were also booked under the Information Technology Act sections 66(c) and 66(d).

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