CBI arrests retd Orissa HC judge, 5 others in corruption case

The CBI has arrested retired Orissa High Court judge Ishrat Masroor Quddusi and five others in connection with a corruption case, agency sources said here today.
The others arrested in the case were Bhawna Pandey, B P Yadav and Palash Yadav of the Prasad Educational Trust which runs a medical college in Lucknow, Biswanath Agrawala, a middleman, and hawala operator Ramdev Saraswat, a CBI spokesperson said.
The arrests were made late last night after a detailed search operation at several locations, including the residence of Justice (retired) Quddusi in Greater Kailash here. Searches were also carried out in Bhubaneswar and Lucknow.

"Also, the CBI carried out searches at the residences of the judge in Lucknow and Faizabad around 9 am today," his brother Nusrat Quddusi told PTI.
The case pertains to Lucknow-based Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences that was barred by the government from admitting students for 2017-18 and 2018-19.
CBI sources said the trust's chairman, B P Yadav, had approached the Supreme Court and the Allahabad High Court to enable the college to admit students.

He had also approached Quddusi and Pandey, who had assured to "get the matter settled" for huge illegal gratification, the sources said.
They involved Bhubaneswar-based Agrawala, who claimed close links with senior public functionaries and assured that he would get the matter settled in their favour, the CBI FIR alleged.

"He demanded huge gratification for inducing the public servants by corrupt and illegal means," it alleged.
The CBI seized Rs 1 crore from Agrawala, the sources said, adding the money was delivered to him through Saraswat.
Rs 91.90 lakh was seized during searches on the premises of other accused persons.
The CBI sources said a preliminary analysis of the documents seized during the searches shows "there are more such deals" that can be brought under the ambit of the probe.
They said it was not the first time that Pandey's name cropped up in such a case.
In 2001, her name had surfaced in a case of alleged corruption involving a senior tax department official.