Former HC judge Quddusi appears before Delhi court in graft case

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

Former Orissa High Court judge Justice (retd) I M Quddusi appeared before a Delhi court on Thursday for allegedly trying to influence the verdict in a case heard by the Supreme Court by manipulating several "high-level functionaries".

Quddusi and other co-accused appeared before Special Judge Anil Kumar Sisodia in pursuance of the summons issued against them by the court earlier.

During the brief proceedings, the CBI supplied the copy of charge sheet, along with documents through hard copy as well as CDs, to all the accused.

The CBI further stated that no further investigation was pending in the case and, accordingly the trial can proceed.

The court has now put up the matter for further hearing on January 31.

Besides Quddusi, the other accused -- B P Yadav and Palash Yadav of Prasad Educational Trust which runs a medical college in Lucknow, alleged middleman Biswanath Agrawala, alleged hawala operator Ramdev Saraswat, Bhavna Pandey and Sudhir Giri -- appeared before the court.

Advocate Vijay Agarwal, who represented Quddusi, said the charge sheet was baseless and would not stand in court as there was no public servant involved.

The court on November 26 summoned the accused in the case after taking cognisance of the charge sheet.

The CBI has accused all the seven people of criminal conspiracy and corruption.

The agency has alleged that B P Yadav had approached the Supreme Court and the Allahabad High Court after his college Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences was barred by the government from admitting students for 2017-18 and 2018-19.

The case was being heard in the Supreme Court when Yadav allegedly approached Quddusi and Pandey to "get the matter settled" by manipulating "high-level functionaries", the CBI said.

Bhubaneswar-based Agrawala claimed to get the matter settled in their favour by using his close links with senior public functionaries, it said.

The CBI had seized Rs 1 crore from Agrawala, sources said, adding that the money was delivered to him through Saraswat; Rs 91.90 lakh was seized during searches on the premises of the other accused.