Mumbai Covid Scam: Lifeline Hospital Management Services accused of faking attendance sheets

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested two persons in connection with the Mumbai Jumbo Covid centres scam.

The arrested persons have been identified as Sujit Patker of Lifeline Hospital Management Services, a company that received contract to run two Jumbo Covid Centres in Mumbai, and Kishore Bisure, a civic doctor.

It has been alleged that although Patker got the contract to run Jumbo Covid Centres, medical staff were not deployed at the hospitals, and government funds were siphoned off.

The duo was produced before a special PMLA court, which sent them to ED custody till July 27.

The ED had initiated a PMLA investigation on November 21, 2022, based on an FIR registered by the Azad Maidan police station, Mumbai. Later, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) over the probe and filed a charge sheet on April 27, 2023.

During the course of ED's investigation, it was revealed that during the pandemic in March 2020, the municipal bodies took measures and established Jumbo Covid Centres to overcome the scarcity of beds for Covid patients in all the available hospitals in the jurisdiction of Mumbai.

For the purpose of making treatment available to all citizens, these centres were established with a large number of beds (oxygenated, non-oxygenated, and ICU). It was learnt that Lifeline Hospital Management Services received Rs 31,84,71,634 from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the supply of medical personnel to the Covid centers.

The investigation revealed huge discrepancies in the attendance sheets and documents submitted to BMC by the staff of Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS).

"For the functioning of these Jumbo Covid Centres, contracts were awarded by the BMC to various firms, including LHMS, which was a new company established in 2020, without any experience of providing medical services.

"Sujit Patker, a partner in LHMS, managed to obtain a contract for providing medical personnel at NSCI Worli and Dahisar Jumbo Covid Centres from the BMC authorities," read the ED remand paper accessed by IANS.

The ED said that its investigation revealed huge discrepancies in the attendance sheets and documents submitted to the BMC by LHMS.

In this regard, letters were issued to the doctors, nurses, and staff reportedly engaged in the Jumbo Covid Centers of LHMS; most of these letters were returned undelivered to the postal authorities. Some of the doctors and staff in their replies even submitted that they have never worked in these Covid centres.

However, they stated that they have appeared for an interview and submitted their personal records to LHMS. But on the instructions of Patker and other partners in the firm, the concerned staff of LHMS submitted their attendance in bills to the BMC authorities showing them as regular employees.

"This arrangement was made by a partner of LHMS with Kishore Bisure, to project that the doctor-to-patient ratio was being maintained as per the specifications mentioned in the Expression of Interest (EOI) issued to LHMS.

"Patker fabricated the bills, despite huge under-deployment of medical staff to the extent of 50-60 per cent, and the same were submitted to the BMC authorities. Patker used to handle liaison with BMC officials and played a key role in the process of allotment of the contract of manpower supply to the Jumbo Covid Centres at Dahisar and Worli to LHMS. He also managed Kishore Bisure and other BMC staff for clearing invoices with fake attendance sheets," the ED alleged.

The agency said that Bisure received valuable items, cash, and a laptop from LHMS.

"LHMS was acting in connivance with BMC officials. An offence of this magnitude is not possible without the explicit complicity of senior functionaries of the BMC," read the remand paper.