Retired Odisha HC justice IM Quddusi

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation has chargesheeted retired Odisha HC justice IM Quddusi and six others for allegedly conspiring to settle debarment of a private medical college in Lucknow.

Besides the former judge, the CBI has accused Bhawna Pandey, Bhagwan Prasad Yadav, Palash Yadav, Sudhir Giri, Bishwanath Agarwala and Ram Dev Saraswat of corruption and criminal conspiracy. The CBI has alleged that Quddusi, with the assistance of other accused, not only legally guided the functionaries of the private medical college but also assured them of a favourable judicial settlement. The chargesheet was filed before special judge Anil Kumar Sisodia on July 8 and posted for consideration on August 2.

Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, who is representing Quddusi and other accused persons, said, "As there is no public servant in the chargesheet, a corruption case won't survive. My clients even got bail on the same argument."

The CBI had carried out raids in Bhubaneswar, Lucknow and Delhi, including at the Greater Kailash residence of Justice Quddusi (Retd). CBI also raided several private persons and a hawala dealer from whom a Rs 1 crore bribe was being collected to be paid on to some government servants in Delhi to settle the matter.

Quddusi and others were booked under sections of the IPC. The CBI had received information that Prasad Institute of Medical College was among the 46 colleges barred by the government from admitting medical students for the forthcoming one or two years because of substandard facilities and non-fulfilment of the required criteria. The Yadavs, who run the institute, had challenged the debarment in the SC in 2017.

On August 1, 2017, the SC had directed the government to consider afresh the material on record pertaining to the issue of confirmation or otherwise of the letter of permission granted to the petitioner college. A hearing was given to the college by the government, which made a reasoned decision on August 10, 2017 to debar the college from admitting fresh students for 2017-18 and 2018-19 and to authorise MCI to encash the bank guarantees of Rs 2 crore.

The CBI received information that BP Yadav had allegedly got in touch with Quddusi and Pandey through Giri of Venkateshwara Medical College in Meerut and conspired to get the matter settled.

