Following directions given by Vigilance Special Court, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday lodged an FIR against 14 persons, including former Finance Minister Rajendra Prasad Singh, former Health Minister Hemlal Murmu, former Health Secretary BK Tripathy and former RINPAS Director in-Charge Amool Ranjan Singh. Rest includes RINPAS employees who got appointed illegally during the Ranjan’s tenure.
“As per the court’s order, we have lodged an FIR against 14 persons at Vigilance Police Station in Ranchi today,” said SP Vigilance Alok. He, however, refused to disclose any other detail regarding the case.
A Vigilance Special Court of Ashutosh Dubey on August 27 had directed the ACB to lodge FIR against Amool Ranjan Singh along with several other RINPAS officials, whose appointments were made during his tenure. Ranjan was in the selection panel of the mental healthcare institute since 1997.
The court issued the order after complainant Uttam Kumar approached it seeking probe into what he claimed was a fraudulent appointment of Amool Ranjan as RINPAS Director.
The ACB primarily lodged a preliminary enquiry against them and found the allegations to be true. It also found involvement of former principal Health Secretary BK Tripathi and then Health Minister Rajendra Prasad Singh, as they had violated rules to appoint under-qualified Ranjan as director.
Ranjan had served as the director-in-charge of RINPAS several times. In 2010, just after three months of Ranjan’s appointment as RINPAS Director in-charge, Medical Council of India had sent a letter to the State Government categorically mentioning that the person appointed on the said post must be an MBBS.
Again Ranjan was appointed director in-charge of RINPAS in the year 2013 but was removed following court’s order. Interestingly, he was again placed on the same post in 2014 by then Health Minister Rajendra Prasad Singh on the recommendations of then Health Secretary BK Tripathy. He, however, was removed from the post in July 2015 following an order passed by CM Raghubar Das. The vigilance enquiry concerns his latest appointment.