The action against Tayade follows after the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau officer Assistant Commissioner of Police Sunil Bajare's filing four criminal cases against Tayade and his three other subordinates, Pravin Shingare, now officiating director of DMER, Chief Administrative Officer Chavan, both of the DMER, and Deputy Secretary in the Medical Education Department Ramkhambe, on charges of corruption. Ayade was later found by the ACB to have allegedly forged his date of birth. Another deputy secretary in the department, Alhat and the previous medical secretary Bhushan Gagrani and present secretary Milind Mhaiskar are also being discreetly investigated by the ACB, and the ACB sleuths are collecting information from journalists from various cities against them, sources said. The state government sent Tayade on compulsory leave after the ACB registered a case of corruption and fudging of birth certificate in March this year. The other accused officials are still working in the DMER and government. Arab News has been on the forefront of exposing the corruption in the DMER and the Medical Education Department by Tayade and his minions. The local media followed Arab News in exposing Tayade and his gang of scamsters later in March and April.
A very senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer told Arab News that Dr. Tayade had been a nuisance for the politicians and bureaucrats in the state secretariat. "He is so powerful that he can spend several million rupees in buying politicians and bureaucrats. For example, although several legislators from the ruling and opposition parties had submitted 107 Legislative Assembly Questionnaire (LAQ) against Tayade, not a single LAQ came on record in the Assembly for discussion last month," he claimed.
According to sources in the Chief Minister's office, the ACB had withdrawn the Assembly pass of Tayade and would now withdraw his pass meant for entry into the state secretariat. Tayade allegedly manipulated his date of birth from Nov. 10, 1950 to Nov. 10, 1952 in his service records. And due to this, he remained in service till 2010, instead of retiring in 2008. As per government rules, a government official retires at the age of 58 years, however, officials from the Medical Education Department said that Tayade's school and college records showed he was born in 1950 and therefore should have retired in 2008. During interrogation by the ACB, Tayade confessed to fudging his birth certificate, an ACB source told Arab News.
Other sources said that the recommendation sent to the chief minister against Tayade also recommends that all the money received by him through dubious means between 2008 and 2011 should be recovered from him, and also that sanction to prosecute Tayade and his co-accused in the corruption scam should be granted without delay to the ACB. A senior police official from the ACB said that though the latest Supreme Court decision waives permission for investigative agencies to seek prior government permission to proceed against a government official and arrest him, the ACB still sought the permission of the government in good faith.
"Once the sanction is received by us from the government we will arrest Tayade and the other accused without delay and send them to their rightful places - the police lock up and later into the prison after filing the foolproof chargesheet against them," the official concluded.
