Dr Mahendra Wadiwala arrested for allegedly helping conman Chandrashekhar get admitted to Rajawadi
The day mid-day reported the suspected involvement of suspended Chief Medical Superintendent of BMC's 18-peripheral hospitals, Dr Mahendra Wadiwala, in a crime where Chennai master conman and prisoner Shekhar Chandrashekhar made threat calls from Rajawadi Hospital to the Bombay High Court in order to stall court proceedings to benefit a Santacruz-based businessman in a property matter, the Azad Maidan Police arrested the doctor.
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Shekhar Chandrashekhar and Mahendra Wadiwala
Wadiwala was arrested from his Borivli residence on Saturday, sources said. Zonal deputy commissioner of police, Manojkumar Sharma, confirmed the development and said that the doctor was produced in the court which has remanded him in police custody till August 3. Wadiwala’s name cropped up during the interrogation of Navindrachandra Gangadhar Hegde, 63, the Santacruz-based businessman who was arrested on July 26 by the Azad Maidan police station as co-accused in the case.
In the case, Chandrashekhar, a master at impersonating ministers, posed as Secretary to Cabinet Minister Of Law Sadanand Gauda and on April 4 called the court receiver of HC, and proceeded to threaten him if he didn’t stall a proceeding against Hegde. However, the plan flopped and the HC got a case registered against both Chandrashekhar and Hegde. Chandrashekhar is now in the Chennai Central Prison, while Hegde is in police custody till August 1.
The police said that Hegde, during his interrogation, said that it was Wadiwala who introduced him to Chandrashekhar. Hegde claimed that Wadiwala, who is his business partner in a project, promised to get his HC's procedure delayed (in his favour) with the help of Chandrashekhar, who got himself admitted at the Rajawadi Hospital. Chandrashekhar, who was sent in jail in 2015 for running a ponzi scheme and duping 500 investors to the tune of Rs 19 crores, had demanded Rs 5 lakh in order to do Hegde’s work. Sources said Hegde claimed that of this money, R1.5 lakh was given to Chandrashekhar through Wadiwala.
Earlier, Hegde had claimed that Wadiwala was also involved in the plan of making phone calls to the HC.
Wadiwala was suspended in May this year after an internal probe by a three-member committee under the civic health department had found him culpable of misusing his office. The committee had found that Chandrashekhar had
been admitted to Rajawadi at Wadiwala’s behest.
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