CBI books Allahabad HC judge SN Shukla, raids his residence

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday morning started conducting raids at the residence of Allahabad High Court judge, Justice S N Shukla and registered a corruption case against him for issuing an order favouring Prasad Education Trust (PET) in exchange for illegal gratification, officials here said. Agency officials also raided premises of five other accused in the same case in Delhi, Lucknow and Meerut, including the one of Justice (Retd) IM Quddusi of Chhattisgarh and Orissa High Court, who has previously been arrested by the CBI in another bribery case involving PET.

The cases pertain to the medical college scam, which surfaced after the Centre had debarred 46 medical colleges from taking new admissions for two years on grounds of substandard facilities and non-fulfilment of required criteria. PET's Prasad Institute of Medical Science (PIMS) was one of the institutes delisted by the government in May 2017.

The CBI has alleged that following this, officials of PET, including its chairman B P Yadav entered into a conspiracy with Quddusi and the other accused to get favourable court decisions in their case multiple times in exchange for bribe amounts.

After PET was delisted, the institute filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court, which ordered the relevant ministry to relook its decision and in doing so, the government came up with the same result and this time added that the Medical Council of India (MCI) be allowed to encash PET's bank guarantee of Rs 2 crore. This decision was also challenged by PET in the Apex Court, where the matter is pending.

However, the CBI has alleged that on Quddusi's advice, PET withdrew its petition from the top court and filed a fresh petition before a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court's Lucknow Bench, at which point, Quddusi engaged Justice Shukla in the matter. The High Court petition was filed on August 24, 2017, and on the next day, Justice Shukla passed an order stopping PET from being delisted and putting a stay on MCI's encashment of the college's bank guarantee until the next date of hearing, officials here said, adding that Yadav and Quddusi had met Justice Shukla at his Lucknow residence on the morning of this order.

The MCI then immediately challenged this order in the Apex Court, where a bench headed by then CJI Dipak Misra held that the MCI could not encash the bank guarantee and that PET would remain delisted. But it added that the institute could approach the top court with the matter if required.

Officials here added that after Justice Shukla's order was overturned, Quddusi and Bhawana Pandey, another accused, pursued the Justice to get back the bribe amount, part of which was duly returned by Justice Shukla.

However, the conspiracy went further ahead when PET again approached the top court with a writ petition and Quddusi along with Pandey promised Yadav that they could get the matter "settled" there. Quddusi and Pandey then brought one Biswanath Agrawala into the matter, who demanded a huge amount of bribe on behalf of the "senior relevant public functionary". When Yadav was going to meet Agrawala to deliver the bribe along with his son Palash, Quddusi and Pandey, the CBI arrested them in a trap and recovered Rs 1 crore.

Interestingly, the CBI had filed the case against Quddusi in September 2017 itself and arrested him along with the other accused. This case had also named one Sudhir Giri, owner of Venkateshwara Medical College in Meerut. The central agency then booked Justice Shukla on December 4 after the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi had in July this year given CBI the permission to book Justice Shukla. This is the second time that the agency has booked a sitting High Court judge.

In fact, former CJI Gogoi had also written to the government to initiate proceedings to impeach Justice Shukla in 2019 and before that the then CJI Misra had asked him to retire voluntarily or resign after an in-house panel of the Apex Court had found allegations against him to have substance in 2018. When Justice Shukla refused to do so, all judicial work was withdrawn from him.

Both the CBI cases have named Quddusi, BP Yadav and his son Palash, Bhawana Pandey and Sudhir Giri. In the 2017 FIR, the CBI had named Agrawala as well and in the latest case, the agency has booked Justice Shukla.