PMJAY racket: DCB files 5,670-page chargesheet against eight accused

The victims, Mahesh Girdhar Barot (52) and Nagar Moti Senma (75), lost their lives on November 11, 2024, after undergoing what the health department’s expert committee called “completely unnecessary” angioplasty surgeries.

While the three FIRs against the nine accused in this case were filed at Vastrapur police station in Ahmedabad where the hospital is located, the investigation was transferred to the Crime Branch on November 18, 2024.

The Crime Branch Friday said it had filed the chargesheet in the case on behalf of the State, against eight of the nine accused in the cases where the most serious charges are that of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The chargesheet was filed before the Fourth Additional Civil and Judicial First Class Magistrate in the Ahmedabad Rural Court. This chargesheet lists the alleged offences of all accused except Kartik Jasu Patel, Chairman of Ahmedabad Bariatrics and Cosmetics Pvt Ltd, the holding company of Khyati hospital. This is because Patel was the last accused to be arrested, on January 18, 2025, which was 66 days after the cases were filed against him.

The Crime Branch said that the investigation against Patel is still underway and that a supplementary chargesheet will be filed against him later.

The officials said that 105 people had been questioned in this case and the statements of seven witnesses had been recorded under Section 183 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

On material evidence, the DCB officials said that during investigation, it took on record 19 pieces of electronic evidence, 36 files and 11 registers from the hospital.

The charge sheet also mentions details of documents of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of the PMJAY, documents from the Bajaj Allianz which is the insurer contracted by the state government under the scheme, documents from the expert medical committee who investigated the case, and audit reports of the hospital.

The DCB also obtained and put on record details of the holding company of Khyati hospital from the Registrar of Companies (RoC), details of 34 bank accounts, details of the properties owned by the accused, medical records of the patients who were later treated at UNMICRC and medical history forms of a total of 37 patients treated at Khyati hospital.

The three case conundrum

Of the three FIRs, one was filed on behalf of the State by a member of the medical expert committee while two others were filed based on the complaints from the families of the deceased.

The chargesheet filed on Friday pertained to the one filed on behalf of the State and includes charges of defrauding the state exchequer by forgery of medical records. However, officials told The Indian Express that no decision has yet been taken on whether separate chargesheets will be filed in the other two cases or all three cases will be merged. This has remained the single unanswered question of this entire case since Day 1.

Further, the 17 survivors of surgeries have repeatedly sought the filing of additional FIRs against the accused based on their complaints and alleged harm caused to them by the hospital.

They had even approached the Gujarat HC for the same. The police are yet to take any action over their demand.
The nine accused

Kartik Patel was the last of the accused to be arrested on January 18, 2025. Before him, hospital Director Rajshree Pradeep Kothari was arrested from Rajasthan on December 14, 2024; while Director Dr Sanjay Mulji Patolia was arrested on December 4, 2024 from Ahmedabad.

On November 26, 2024, the Crime Branch arrested Director Chirag Rajput and three members of the marketing team of the hospital, including Milind Patel, Pratik Bhatt and Pankil Patel from a farmhouse in Kheda district while CEO Rahul Jain was arrested from Rajasthan by another team.

The first arrest in the case was the visiting cardiologist, Dr Prashant Prakash Vazirani, who performed the surgeries. He was arrested on November 13, 2024, hours after the three FIRs were filed.

The chargesheeted case

In the case filed on behalf of the State, all nine accused were booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 336(2) (forgery), 336(3) (forgery with intention to use it to cheat someone), 318 (cheating), 340(2) (knowingly using forged documents as genuine) and 61 (criminal conspiracy). The FIR states that while the hospital reports had shown that Mahesh Barot had 80% blockage in his mid left circumflex artery, the angiography CD showed no blockage at all. Further, against the hospital’s claim of 90% blockage in Barot’s mid right circumflex artery, the angiography showed only a 30-40% blockage. In case of the second deceased, Nagar Senma, the FIR stated that while hospital records showed a 90% blockage in the proximal and mid segments of the left anterior descending (LAD) artery, the angiography CD showed 80% blockage in the mid section and 50% blockage in the proximal section. Further, against the hospital’s claim of 90% blockage in the right coronary artery, the angiography CD was proof that there was no blockage at all.

The FIR alleged that the hospital and its authorities had also not taken consent to perform either angiography or angioplasty on the patients and had been negligent in the post operative care of these patients. It further alleged that the surgeries were carried out to commit fraud under the PMJAY scheme to make illicit financial gains.