A doctor at Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS) in Mumbai, named in a money laundering case, returned Rs 1 crore from his share to the facility after the police initiated an investigation into the case last year, a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) revealed.Dr Hemant Gupta was one of the accused in the money laundering probe connected to the Covid centre case involving the contract awarded to LHMS by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)..
Last month, the ED filed a chargesheet against six people and LHMS as an entity, for fraudulent activities and conspiracy. The chargesheet revealed that BMC disbursed around Rs 32 crore for the contracts, with Dr Gupta earning a share of Rs 2.85 crore.The six accused secured the contract for operating Covid jumbo centres from the BMC in August, the ED chargesheet stated.
Dr Gupta is one of the four partners in LHMS, which secured contracts from the BMC to supply manpower for the Covid jumbo centres at Dahisar and Worli. Two other civic doctors were named in the chargesheet along with Dr Gupta.The chargesheet said that Dr Gupta, along with the main accused Sujit Patkar and others, acquired the contract for running the two Jumbo Covid centres but operated them with only 40 per cent of the required staff.The probe agency said 60 per cent of the staff existed only on paper and never provided services, thereby endangering the patients’ lives in the Covid centres.The ED alleged that the contract was fraudulently obtained from the BMC, and the bills submitted contained fake entries for medical staff and doctors who either did not exist or never worked at the two Covid jumbo centres.Dr Gupta was made a partner in LHMS due to his expertise in the medical field, allowing his name to be used to secure the contract and operate Covid jumbo centres.The chargesheet said that Dr Gupta “never rendered his services effectively in running the Covid centres by LHMS”.”He (Dr Gupta) did not bother to safeguard the interest of patients in Covid centres, rather allowed all irregularities of under-deployment of the medical staff, for personal financial gains from the proceeds of crime generated by the accused firm through under-deployment of staff,” the ED chargesheet alleged.India Today on Monday reported that the prime accused, Sujit Patkar, had used the name of Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, his close friend, to gain access to Additional Commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal, who was then with the BMC and conducting meetings regarding Covid jumbo centres. However, Patkar stated that he did not speak to Raut by using his name to meet Jaiswal.
