Dr Mahendra Wadiwala is said to have helped prisoner Shekhar Chandrashekhar get admitted to Rajawadi Hospital from where he made threats to HC to stall proceedings
Dr Mahendra Wadiwal and Shekhar Chandrashekhar
Suspended Chief Medical Superintendent of BMC's 18 peripheral hospitals Dr Mahendra Wadiwala is under the police scanner. During the interrogation of an arrested businessman, Dr Wadiwala was named as being the person who helped a prisoner — master conman Shekhar Chandrashekhar, who got himself admitted at Rajawadi Hospital — make threat calls to the Bombay High Court to stall court proceedings against the businessman.
Dr Mahendra Wadiwal and Shekhar Chandrashekhar
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The Santacruz-based businessman, Navindrachandra Gangadhar Hegde, 63, was arrested on July 26 by the Azad Maidan police station as co-accused in the case. Dr Wadiwala has denied the allegation and said, "The allegations are baseless and my name is unnecessarily being dragged into this."
In the case, Chandrashekhar, who is a master at impersonating ministers, posed as secretary of Minister of Law Sadanand Gauda, on April 4, and called the HC receiver and made threats, telling him to stall proceedings against Hegde. It didn't go as planned and the HC got a case registered against Chandrashekhar and Hegde.
Chandrashekhar was arrested earlier and is now at the Chennai Central prisons in a fraud case there, while Hegde is in police custody up to August 1. A senior IPS officer confirmed the development to mid-day and said, "Hegde told interrogators that it was Dr Wadiwala who introduced him to Chandrashekhar. Hegde claimed that Dr Wadiwala, who is
his business partner in a project, promised to get the HC procedure delayed [in his favour] with the help of Chandrashekhar."
The senior officer said Hegde told interrogators that Chandrashekhar had demanded Rs 5 lakh for the job. Sources said Hegde claimed that of this, he gave R1.5 lakh to Chandrashekhar through Dr Wadiwala.
"Hegde claims that Dr Wadiwala was involved in the plan to make the phone calls to HC through Chandrashekhar from the hospital. We are in the process of verifying his claims and will soon inquire with Dr Wadiwala about this. We are also analysing phone calls made between the three and if there is evidence found against Dr Wadiwala, he will be arrested," the IPS officer said.
Wadiwala was suspended in May this year after an internal probe by a three-member committee under the civic health department found him culpable of misusing his office. The committee had found that scamster Chandrashekhar was, in total defiance of all protocol, admitted to Rajawadi only at Dr Wadiwala's behest.
As per rules, prisoners are never admitted to BMC-run hospitals. Wadiwala had pressured the Rajawadi Hospital superintendent to admit Chandrashekhar, the committee had found. The committee's findings indicated that Dr Wadiwala had vested interests in keeping Chandrashekhar in the hospital.
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