Orissa HC ex-Judge, five others in CBI custody in graft case

New Delhi, Sep 21 (IANS) Retired Orissa High Court Judge I.M. Quddusi and five others were arrested by the CBI on the charge of helping an educational trust barred from admitting medical course students and sent in four-day CBI custody on Thursday, an official said.

Those arrested on Wednesday night along with Quddusi after questioning in a corruption case, wherein an Uttar Pradesh-based educational trust barred by the government for admitting students for two years, were B.P. Yadav, Palash Yadav, Biswanath Agrawala and Ram Dev Saraswat, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official told IANS.

Sixth accused Bhawana Pandey was arrested here on Thursday, the official said.

Quddusi and other accused were presented on Thursday before Special Judge Manoj Jain, who allowed the CBI to quiz them till September 25.

The CBI sought their custody on the ground that they were required to be confronted with each other to unearth the entire conspiracy in the case.

The agency had registered a case of criminal conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act against the accused on Tuesday and conducted raids at eight locations in Delhi, Lucknow and Bhubaneswar.

During the raids, including at Quddusi's residence in south Delhi's Greater Kailash area, the CBI seized Rs 1.91 crore, including Rs 1 crore from middleman Agrawala and Rs 91 lakh from others.

The accused would be presented in a court here to seek their custody, the official said.

The CBI FIR said B.P. Yadav and Palash Yadav were managing the Lucknow-based Prasad Educational Trust which runs the Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences.

The institute is among 46 colleges barred by the government from admitting medical course students for two years (till 2019) because of substandard facilities and non- fulfilment of criteria.