Leading medical ethics body, World Medical Association appointed tainted Indian physician Ketan Desai as its president last week.
Reuters reported that Desai who has previously headed Indian Medical Association delivered his speech at the body’s annual assembly in Taiwan on Friday and is set to serve as the president for the 2016-17 period.
The appointment of Ketan Desai as the president of an ethics body is ironical, as Desai is an accused in corruption cases in India.
Desai’s name was first proposed as a future president in 2009, but was suspended in 2010 after he was jailed as an undertrial in a corruption case. (currently being heard by the Supreme Court).
PTI reported that Kunal Saha, President of People for Better Treatment (PBT), an advocacy group, demanded an intervention following the development sent a legal notice to the MCI and the Union Health Ministry.
He had allegedly taken a bribe of Rs.2 crore from a private medical college in exchange for favours regarding accreditation from Medical Council of India.
It is alleged that Desai along with three others accepted the bribe from Gyan Sagar Medical College in Patiala in exchange of permission to admit a fresh batch of students.
His wife Alka Desai was also charge sheeted by the CBI as a co-conspirator in the case.
In the same year, CBI also alleged that he took another Rs.20 crore as bribe from a Kolkata hospital for sanctioning extension of its academic session.
Apart from these allegations of accepting bribes, he was charged with possessing disproportionate assets by the CBI.
Following Desai’s arrest, the MCI was dissolved by the then President of India Pratibha Patil.
His suspension was lifted in 2013 after the IMA told WMA that charges against Desai were dropped which a Reuters investigation deemed “incorrect”. But the body went on to appoint Desai as its president.