One of the key accused is an employee of private firm which has contract for creating govt funded health cards issued under under PM-JAY.
In what police suspect a nationwide fraud of Ayushman Bharat health cards, the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) on Tuesday arrested eight persons on charges of making fake cards for availing undue benefits.
One of the key accused is an employee of the private firm which has the contract for creating government funded health cards issued under under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY).
DCB officials said that the group of accused allegedly used “government portal’s technical vulnerabilities to alter source codes and create approximately 1200–1500 fake Ayushman Bharat cards.” They said that one of the accused Nikhil Parekh is an employee of Enser Communication Pvt Ltd, which has the government’s contract for issuing these cards.
Parekh was allegedly found to have provided login credentials to the co-accused for monetary benefit of Rs 8,000–Rs 10,000 per month. An FIR has been registered for forgery, cheating and tampering with government portal, among other charges.
Accused who have been arrested are Kartik Jashubhai Patel, Chirag Hirasinh Rajput, Nimesh Dilipbhai Dodiya, Md Fazal Sheikh, Md Asfaque Sheikh, Narendra Singh Gohil, Nikhil Parekh, all residents of Ahmedabad, Imtiyaz, a resident of Bhavnagar, Rashid, a resident of Bihar and Imran Jabir Husain Karigar who is from Surat.
The DCB officials said that the documents seized from Khyati hospital and questioning of hospital staff suggest that the hospital is also involved in the alleged crime. He has named several accused who were behind the racket fraudulently issuing cards by charging anything from Rs1,500 to Rs 2,000 each.
These revelations came in the ongoing investigation into Khyati Multispecialty Hospital’s scam. The investigation started after the death of two patients following their alleged unnecessary procedure. Investigation has revealed that the hospital was involved in a systematic scam in which it used to hold medical camps and refer patients to its hospitals for treatment.
According to DCB, in the past three years, the hospital carried out medical camps in 69 villages across the state in which a total of 5,637 people were examined. The police are said to be scanning details of 3,842 beneficiaries of PM-JAY who underwent treatment at this hospital from September 1 to October 28, 2024. More than 100 patients died following the procedures.