MBBS Admission Fraud: PMLA court rejects bail plea of six accused in money laundering case

Mumbai: Coming in support of the innocent medical aspirants who were cheated under the pretext of facilitating admission to a college for an MBBS course, a special court in Mumbai rejected the bail and discharge plea of six accused in a money laundering case filed by the trustees of Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Education Society (SCSES).

In their plea for the discharge of the accused, the education trustees stated that the case had already been settled and disposed of before the Lok Adalat on November 12. Therefore, the money laundering case has no reason to continue, and the accused should be discharged in this regard.

In response to the plea, special judge MG Deshpande said "If the application is allowed in a hasty manner, as proposed by the accused...it will cause horrific consequences of disposal of a special case relating to money laundering. At the cost of repetition, it has to be noted that the accused are not prevented from filing any application as such. Still, at the same time, the court is under obligation to wait till the period of limitation for filing an appeal against the acquittal in Lok Adalat."

Moreover, only one person appeared before the Lok Adalat and withdrew the complaint said the court, Hence, the plea is premature and cannot be entertained based on the severe crime committed by the accused. It said that the case relates to the alleged cheating of various innocent students and parents, who lost their hard-earned life earnings, and they can file an appeal against Lok Adalat's decision, TOI reports.

Also read- 350 Medical Aspirants Duped Of Over Rs 65 Crore, ED Charge Sheet On Maharashtra Education Society

Medical dialogues team had reported in July, this year that the former working president of the Kolhapur-based Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Education Society (SCSES) and other accused had cheated 350 medical aspirants and collected over Rs 65 crore for admission in a college run by the trust, as alleged in the charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate.

The money collected from 350 medical aspirants had been used for purchasing properties or for personal use by the accused, the probe agency alleged in the charge sheet recently filed in the money laundering case.

According to the ED, the SCSES had collected the amount despite being aware that it did not have the necessary permissions from the Medical Council of India or Maharashtra University of Health Science for granting admissions to the MBBS course.

As per the charge sheet, Mahadev Deshmukh in collusion with the other accused had cheated around 350 gullible students from 2011 to 2016 and collected around Rs 65.70 crore on the pretext of offering admission to MBBS course in the college called Institute of Medical Science and Research (IMSR) run by the SCSES.

Further, it claimed that the Admissions Regulatory Authority had refused to renew permission for the medical college to admit students for MBBS courses for want of infrastructure. The agency claimed that even when the permission was denied for the academic year 2014-15, Deshmukh took money from students by promising them admissions in future – in academic years 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Observing that although one person filed the FIR, the charge sheet of ED included 41 witnesses who lost their hard-earned money to get their children admission at the college but to no avail, the court on Friday informed "Admittedly none of the 41 witnesses was present at the time of withdrawal or compounding of the complaint in Lok Adalat dated November 12. Therefore, Any victim can prefer to appeal against acquittal and the Court has to wait till the period of appeal ends. Judicial discipline warrants the same."

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