A Jaipur Compounder Owns 200 Cr 'Illegal Properties'

By Mallika Dandhawat / Jaipur

Mahesh Chandra Sharma is a compounder at Jaipur’s premier Sawai Man Singh ( SMS) Hospital. Sharma is no ordinary compounder, though. He is part owner of over two dozen nursing colleges in Rajasthan, and has assets worth over ` 200 crore. Sharma’s properties include a hospital and 5,200- square yard farmhouse in Jaipur, a 3- bigha resort on the outskirts of the city. Another twist in Sharma’s incredible tale is that he accumulated all this wealth in just the last six years.
Sharma’s mind- boggling riches were made known to the world when he was arrested on Sunday by the Rajasthan Police. He faces charges of misusing his position first as member and then as advisor at the Indian Nursing Council ( INC) to extract money from nursing colleges in return for getting them various permissions and approvals from the council. The Anti- Corruption Bureau ( ACB) of the state police says Sharma is the tip of the corruption iceberg at the council.

During interrogation, Sharma is believed to have named council chief T. Dilip Kumar in the racket, sources said. The ACB has also arrested Sharma’s close associate and property dealer Rajendra Saini. Both are in police remand for five days following a local court’s order of Sunday evening.

Deputy Inspector General Govind Narain Purohit of the ACB said that Dr Ramesh Saini, secretary of Jaipur’s Manav Seva Samiti, had tipped them off about Sharma demanding ` 10 lakh for starting a new course at the Dhanvantari Nursing College run by the Samiti. The deal however, was struck for ` 5 lakh; Sharma called Saini to RAG Hospital that he had purchased recently for ` 22 crore. Sharma had no reason to doubt Dr Saini as he had already received ` 1 crore from him Saini in bribes for various favours. It was during the transaction that the bureau caught Sharma red handed.

Sharma, till couple of years back was a compounder at the tuberculosis centre of the SMS hospital. He was made nursing tutor by the state government. This enabled him to inspect nursing colleges and he became close to the council members.

Subsequently he was nominated as a council member, and soon after, advisor. The bureau has meanwhile seized Udaipur’s Mewar Nursing college — run by Udaipur district Congress vice- president Pankaj Sharma — and raided several nursing colleges in Jaipur and outside.

A Grade II compounder, Sharma had recently applied for voluntary retirement. The ACB suspects that council chief Kumar and its other officers would first create problems for nursing institutions and later demand money to fix it. Sharma, his wife and other members of the family have partnership in 26 nursing colleges across the state.