An inquiry report has made “adverse remarks” against an Allahabad High Court judge facing corruption allegations in the Medical Council of India bribery case, The Indian Express reported on Monday, quoting sources. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had set up the inquiry panel.
The panel, headed by Madras High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, submitted its report to Misra around January 20 and January 21, sources were quoted as saying.
The alleged scam involves medical colleges run by the Prasad Education Trust. The Medical Council of India had denied the trust permission to operate the colleges, but a middleman allegedly assured the trust that the judiciary would allow it to run the institute. The trust then allegedly paid the middleman to facilitate this.
In September 2017, a senior CBI official had approached Misra with evidence against Allahabad High Court Justice Narayan Shukla, which reportedly included transcripts of telephonic conversations, allegedly involving a retired Odisha High Court judge, the trust’s chairman and the middleman. The CBI asked for permission to file a case against Shukla, but Misra refused to give permission, sources told the newspaper.
In its preliminary inquiry report, the CBI said the retired judge, IM Quddusi, and the trust’s chairman BP Yadav met Shukla in August and “delivered [to him] illegal gratification”. On September 19, the CBI had filed an FIR against Quddusi and Yadav among others for allegedly bribing public officials, but did not mention Shukla.
The CBI conducted several raids and found that all the accused had hatched a criminal conspiracy to obtain judicial orders from high courts and the Supreme Court in favour of the trust. This led to Quddusi’s arrest. He was later released on bail.
On September 4, Shukla allegedly made handwritten corrections to his own September 1 order, and gave permission to certain medical colleges to admit students despite a ban by the Medical Council of India.
The CBI is now keen on seeking Misra’s permission again to file a case against him, sources said.
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