CBI finds assets worth Rs 1.7 cr with AICTE chairman

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has found assets (including cash) worth slightly over Rs 2 crore from the residential and official premises of AICTE Chairman R A Yadav and advisor H C Rai.

This was revealed to mediapersons here today by CBI even as it registered a case against Yadav, Rai, Deputy Director Robinder Randhawa and regional officer Om Dalal on alleged bribery charges. The investigation agency also arrested member secretary K Narayan Rao and S B Subba Rao, a middleman, for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 5,00,000 from an owner of engineering college in Andhra Pradesh. They were caught red-handed after the middleman had allegedly asked him for a bribe of Rs 20 lakh on behalf of the member secretary for inspection and approval of his college and had agreed to accept Rs 500,000 as the first instalment.

CBI seized Rs 1.7 crore worth cash, fixed deposits and investments from Yadav besides a 250 square yard plot in Gurgaon. “We raided different places and found cash and deposits worth Rs 1.7 crore from H C Rai’s house besides various plots in Greater Noida, Ghaziabad and Rohini,” the CBI spokesperson said. AICTE officials remained unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), meanwhile, is waiting for a formal report from CBI and may suspend K Narayan Rao for allegedly accepting the bribe, according to a source close to the development.

The agency also conducted surprise raids on the offices and residences of the regional officer of AICTE’s Bhopal and Chennai where some files were recovered.

In a related incident, the Bhopal branch of CBI has registered a case of abuse of official position by regional officer Sanjay Sharma in facilitating the approval of chain of engineering colleges at Bhopal of Radha Raman Group of Institutes.