Govt removes Patna’s AIIMS executive director who was indicted by inquiry panel
PATNA: The union ministry of health and family welfare (MoH&FW) has removed Dr Gopal Krushna Pal as executive director (ED) of Patna’s All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) following allegations that he abused his official position to get an OBC non-creamy-layer certificate for his son, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The people said a formal order to temporarily assign Dr Pal’s responsibilities at AIIMS Patna to Dr Saurabh Varshney, executive director of AIIMS Deoghar, was issued on Monday.
The order said Dr Varshney will hold additional charge as ED of AIIMS Patna “with immediate effect for three months or till the joining of regular incumbent to the post or until further order, whichever is earlier”.
HT has reviewed a copy of the office order dated November 4 issued by Arun Kumar Biswas, an under secretary at the health ministry.
Efforts to seek Dr Pal’s comments on the development were futile as his cellphone was switched off.
The development comes months after a three-member inquiry committee headed by Manashvi Kumar Singh, the health ministry’s joint secretary, indicted Dr Pal for misuse and abuse of his official position and recommended that he be immediately divested of his official responsibilities.
The inquiry was ordered after a complaint on September 4 accused Dr Pal of irregularities in connection with the issuance of non-creamy layer other backward classes (OBC-NCL) certificate to his son Dr Auroprakash Pal and his fraudulent selection in the postgraduate Doctor of Medicine (MD) course in microbiology at AIIMS Gorakhpur.
Dr Pal had held additional charge as ED of AIIMS Gorakhpur for nine months. He was relieved of this additional responsibility on September 27, the day the inquiry committee submitted its report.
In its report, the inquiry committee said Dr Pal was aware of all rules, regulations and guidelines issued by the government regarding categorisation of candidates as creamy/non-creamy layer in OBC but he “chose to mend, bend and circumvent the system.”
HT has reviewed a copy of the inquiry report.
It said Dr Pal misrepresented the facts and thus committed fraud with a malafide intent in obtaining OBC-NCL certification for his son to get admitted in MD microbiology department at AIIMS Gorakhpur. His son dropped out of the course after the controversy broke out.
“The committee believed such cases/individuals must be brought to the books of law for all such acts of omissions and commissions, on account of a simple yet profound rationale, that a high public office of such standard, and repute, should not be brought to substantive shame and disgrace,” the report said.
Dr Pal is a professor of physiology at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry and was on lien to the health ministry to serve as AIIMS Patna executive director with effect from July 3, 2022. His three-year tenure as AIIMS ED was to end on July 2, 2025.
