CBI court grants bail to former HC judges accused in Medical Admission Scam

Allahabad: Former High Court Judges, who were co-accused on the charges of corruption in a medical college bribery scandal, were granted bail by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Friday.

The bail from the CBI court came after a special court had summoned them and other accused involved in the alleged scam and it took cognizance of the charge sheet filed against them by the Bureau, adds ET.

At that time, the Special CBI court had noted, "Perusal of the record reflects that sufficient material is available against accused persons to proceed ahead."

Medical Dialogues had reported back in 2021 that Allahabad High Court had given its nod to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute its former judge Justice S N Shukla in a medical admission scam. The allegations against former Justice Shukla was that he had passed a favorable judgment for a medical college back in 2017.

The concerned judge was found to be involved in a corruption case for allegedly favouring a private medical college in his orders. It is alleged that the Lucknow-based medical college was debarred by the Centre from admitting students due to substandard facilities and non-fulfilment of the required criteria in May 2017, along with 46 other medical colleges that were also debarred on similar grounds.

Also Read: Medical College admission scam: CBI Gets Nod to Prosecute Former Allahabad HC Judge

The decision to debar was challenged by the trust before the Supreme Court through a writ petition, CBI officials had earlier informed. Subsequently, a conspiracy was hatched by those named in the FIR, and the petition was withdrawn with the court"s permission. Another writ petition was filed before the Lucknow bench of the high court on August 24, 2017. It was further alleged in the FIR that the petition was heard on August 25, 2017, by a division bench of the court comprising Justice Shukla and a favourable order was passed the same day.

Back in 2018 the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had decided to recommend the removal of Allahabad High Court judge Justice S N Shukla as part of an in-house procedure after he was found guilty of misconduct by an internal probe into the medical college admission scam.

In December, 2021, the CBI had filed its chargesheet against retired Allahabad High Court Judge Justice S.N. Shukla.

In its FIR, besides Justice Shukla of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, the agency had also named retired Odisha High Court judge I.M. Quddusi, Bhagwan Prasad Yadav and Palash Yadav of the Prasad Education Trust, the trust itself and private persons Bhavna Pandey and Sudhir Giri.

The accused were booked under Section 120B of the IPC (criminal conspiracy) and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Several other accused in the FIR have also been named in the charge sheet.

As per the latest media report by Economic Times, on July 17, a special CBI court had took note of the charges of criminal conspiracy and corruption brought against the former judges under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act slapped by the CBI

Referring to the charges against them, the CBI had contended that in the concerned case, Justice (retd) Quddusi and co-accused had "demanded and ontained illegal gratification" for Justice Shukla and themselves from the medical college's owner.

It had further been argued by CBI that Justice Shukla had "misused his official position as government servant for issuing favourable order in favour" of M/s Prasad Education Trust.

While, all the accused had denied any wrongdoing on their part, Advocate Ayush Jindal, the counsel appearing for Justice Quddusi contended that the CBI had never sought to arrest Quddusi during the probe and therefore, there was no case for denying him bail.

After summoning the accused, the special CBI court had noted that sufficient material was available against the accused. Therefore, the CBI court granted bail to them on Friday.

Also Read: Medical Admissions Scam: CBI files chargesheet against former Allahabad HC Judge