The central bureau of investigation (CBI) raided several officers of the Medical Council of India (MCI) on Wednesday morning for allegedly favouring a private medical college in Kerala.

Search operations were conducted at the offices and residential premises of several officers of the MCI, including those of additional secretary Dr Prasanna Raj, deputy secretary Anshu Sethi Bajaj and Dr Samson Nessaih, principal of Dr Somervell Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram. 

The CBI is probing the matter against the college as well as several officers, as they were given the permission to carry out post graduation admissions even after the prescribed date set by the medical council.

Applications for Dr Somervell Medical College were processed in an ‘illegal’ manner and they were allocated seats after the due date prescribed by the medical council.

Incidentally, five days ago, two medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh were raided by the income tax department and unaccounted wealth in discriminating documents was recovered pointing out massive irregularities as claimed by the income tax department.

In 2010, Ketan Desai, former president of MCI, was arrested on charges of accepting money in lieu of permission and there after medical council was dissolved and government had nominated board of governors to run the council.

In 2001, high court in Delhi had termed the council as the “Den of corruption” and present health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan too has been calling the medical council a corrupt institution.

The current medical council president Dr Jayshree Mehta when asked about the incident refused to speak on the matter.