Former Orissa HC judge IM Qudussi, others appear before Delhi Court in medical college bribery case

Former Orissa High Court judge, Justice (Retd.) IM Quddusi today appeared before a Special CBI Court pursuant to the summons issued to him in connection with the medical college bribery case he was implicated in two years ago.

Apart from Justice IM Quddusi, the other accused in the case - Prasad Education Trust’s BP Yadav and Palash Yadav, Biswanath Agrawala, Ramdev Saraswat, Bhavna Pandey and Sudhir Giri - also appeared before the CBI Court presided by Judge Anil Kumar Sisodia.

The Court today extended bail to Giri in the case after CBI stated that his custodial interrogation was not needed as investigation in the case was complete.

The other accused in the case are already on bail.

Hearing in the matter was adjourned till January 31 after a copy of the chargesheet and other relevant material were supplied to the defence counsel by the prosecution.

Summons was issued to Qudussi and others in November last year by the Court post cognizance of the chargesheet filed in the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

In its chargesheet filed in July this year, the CBI had charged Quddusi and others for the commission of offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code.

Around 46 colleges run by Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences were barred from admitting students by the Central Government for the academic sessions 2017-18 and 2018-19. The Trust challenged the same in the Supreme Court, which had directed the government to reconsider the materials on record and review the grant of the letter of permission to run the college.

It is the CBI’s case that when the litigation was pending before the Supreme Court, Quddusi tried to influence certain “high-level functionaries” to tilt to the outcome of the dispute and get the matter settled in the Trust’s favour through his contacts.

In September 2017, the CBI had arrested Justice IM Quddusi - who has also served as a judge of the High Courts of Allahabad and Chhattisgarh – in connection with the case.

Justice Quddusi was elevated as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court in 1993, and was made a permanent judge in 1995. He was then transferred to the Orissa High Court in 2004, where he would serve for six years before his transfer to the Chhattisgarh High Court. He retired in 2012.

Quddusi is being represented by Advocates Vijay Aggarwal and Yugant Sharma.

Giri was represented by Advocate PK Dubey.

CBI is being represented by Senior Public Prosecutor AK Rao.