‘Tainted Ketan Desai off to Canada meet soon’

NEW DELHI - Tainted ex-Medical Council of India (MCI) chief Ketan Desai will represent the country at a Canadian conference despite the council’s plea to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to stop him from doing so, a doctors’ group said Saturday.

Desai is scheduled to attend the World Medical Association (WMA) conference in Canada Oct 13-16.

In a letter to MCI board of governors’ chief S.K. Sarin, an association of physicians People for Better Treatment (PBT), informed that WMA chief Edward Hill, in a telephonic conversation, said that he needed evidence to bar Desai from attending the conference.

The WMA now wants ‘official documentation’ showing evidence of Desai’s ‘re-incarceration’ and his ‘inability to leave India’ upon his return from Canada, said the letter written to MCI by PBT president Kunal Saha.

Hill also told me over telephone today (Saturday) that they cannot take any final decision in this regard until the full executive committee meets, which won’t happen until they all come to Vancouver as the meeting starts next week, Saha said in the letter to Sarin.

Desai, who was removed from his post of MCI chief after he was arrested by the CBI in a graft case, is all set to travel to Canada to attend the WMA conference representing India.

The MCI board earlier wrote to the CBI to stop him from leaving the country.

In a letter sent to CBI Director Ashwani Kumar in New Delhi Oct 7, the MCI pointed out that the recent release of Desai’s passport by a court means he will be able to travel to Vancouver in Canada between Oct 13-16 for the conference.

“Desai has no authority, as per law, to represent the MCI or doctors of India in the Vancouver conference. He has fraudulently obtained the order granting him permission to attend the conference purportedly on behalf of the MCI,” said the letter.