CBI raids residence of retired Orissa HC judge in corruption case; five others booked

New Delhi: The CBI registered an FIR against a retired judge of the Orissa High Court and five others in an alleged corruption case and carried out searches at eight places on Wednesday. Justice (retired) Ishrat Masroor Quddusi has been booked on corruption charges, along with BP Yadav and Palash Yadav of the Prasad Educational Trust which runs a medical college in Lucknow, Biswanath Agrawala a middleman and two others — Bhawana Pandey and Sudhir Giri, according to a CBI spokesperson. Justice (retired) Quddusi was a judge in the Orissa High Court between 2004 and 2010. The spokesperson said the agency had carried out searches at eight locations, including the residence of Justice (retired) Quddusi, in New Delhi. Searches were also carried out in Bhubaneswar and Lucknow. [caption id=“attachment_3975957” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] The spokesperson also rejected reports that the residence of a sitting judge of the Orissa High Court was raided by the agency. All such reports “are baseless and factually incorrect”, the spokesperson added. According to the CBI FIR, Prasad Institute of Medical Science in Lucknow was among the 46 medical institutes that were barred by the government from admitting new students because of shortcomings in infrastructure, the FIR said. The issue was challenged in the Supreme Court by the college. The apex court had directed the government to consider the material on record afresh, it said. In compliance with the order, the government heard the matter and debarred the college from taking admissions for two sessions — 2017-18 and 2018-19. It also authorised the Medical Council of India to encash the college’s bank guarantee of Rs 2 crore, it said. The matter was being pursued by the Prasad Education Trust in the apex court. The trust had filed a writ petition. BP Yadav got in touch with Justice (retired) Quddusi and Pandey through Sudhir Giri of Venkateshwara Medical College, Meerut. Yadav requested the retired judge and Pandey for help who assured him of getting the matter settled in the apex court through their contact and they further engaged Biswanath Agrawala, a Bhubaneswar resident, the FIR alleged. “Biswanath Agrawala claimed very close contacts with senior relevant public functionaries and assured that he would get the matter favourably settled. He demanded huge gratification for inducing public servants by corrupt and illegal means in lieu of aforesaid help,” the FIR alleged. The agency laid a trap and recovered Rs 1 crore from Agrawala in Delhi which he had allegedly received from a hawala operator, Ram Dev Saraswat, the CBI sources said. They said during the searches, Rs 85 lakh were recovered from the hawala operator and Rs 5 lakh from Pandey.