Ketan Desai

Ahmedabad, Nov. 23: Ketan Desai, the former Medical Council of India (MCI) president who was arrested by the CBI for seeking a bribe from a private medical college and barred from practising medicine, has been elected unopposed to the Gujarat University senate.

The senate polls are due on November 28, but Desai won without contest on Friday after H.P. Bhalodia, known to be his right-hand man, withdrew his nomination.

Desai had filed his nomination as a registered medical graduate, the only option available to him because he was suspended as professor in B.J. Medical College after his arrest in April for seeking a bribe of Rs 2 crore from a college in Punjab.

The election is being seen as an attempt by Desai to get back into the MCI through the back door as a university representative. In the past, he has been nominated to the MCI by the state government as a university representative.

Gujarat University vice-chancellor Parimal Trivedi and Ahmedabad Medical Association secretary Mehul Shah, when contacted, defended Desai’s “democratic right” to contest though the MCI had barred him from practising as a doctor or representing them on any council or association.

Dr Kunal Saha, the US-based head of the NGO People for Better Treatment, has written to chief minister Narendra Modi expressing shock that “a doctor who was arrested by the CBI and facing criminal trial could be elected to the university senate”.

But the state government washed its hands of the election. Government spokesperson and health minister Jaynarayan Vyas said he had “nothing to say” about the development which, he claimed, was not within his purview.

Education minister Raman Vora said: “Each university is governed by its act, the state government has no role to play.”

However, senate member Manish Doshi said Desai’s election had the blessings of the state government. Sources said that as MCI president, he had obliged so many politicians, bureaucrats and doctors that few would object to the election. “If you go against him, he is powerful enough to harm you,” a doctor said.

Another pointed out that despite his arrest, Desai’s grip over the Indian Medical Association remained intact, with his panel winning 92 per cent votes in this month’s election. VC Trivedi said Desai was his friend but “I have no role in getting him elected, I could not prevent him either.”