Odisha: CBI arrests retired High Court judge, five others in medical admission scam

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths have arrested six people including a retired Odisha High Court judge for enabling private medical college to admit students to courses despite Supreme Court order barring admission.

The arrested High Court judge has been identified as Ishrat Masroor Quddusi.

CBI sleuths have identified the other arrested as middleman Biswanath Agrawala, hawala operator Ram Dev Saraswat, Bhawna Pandey and owner of private medical college BP Yadav and Palash Yadav.

CBI has lodged an FIR against the retired High Court judge and four other accused.

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CBI sleuths had recovered Rs 1.91 crore during the raids carried out by the agency in Delhi, Lucknow and Bhubaneswar.

Quddusi has been accused of legally guiding the functionaries of the private medical college but also assured settlement of their cases in the Supreme Court.

According to sources in the CBI, the agency carried out raids after they received inputs that Prasad Institute of Medical College was one of the 46 colleges that have been 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.

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The agency received information that B P Yadav got in touch with Quddusi and Pandey through one Sudhir Giri of Venkateshwara Medical College in Meerut and conspired for getting the matter settled.

Investigating agencies have also lodged an FIR against two IAS officers serving in Puducherry, who headed the committee looking after admissions to medical colleges, for allegedly denying admissions to deserving students.