On 9 January, the retired Orissa High Court judge, IM Qudussi along with the other co-accused, appeared before a Special CBI Court in Delhi, following the summons issued to him for allegedly trying to influence the verdict in a medical college bribery case. Reportedly, he tried to manipulate several ‘high-level functionaries.’
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 in the case. All seven people were accused of criminal conspiracy and corruption.
A case was filed by one BP Yadav, who approached the Supreme Court and the Allahabad High Court after around 46 colleges run by the ‘Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences’ was barred by the government from admitting students for the academic years of 2017-18 and 2018-19. The case was being heard by the Supreme Court when it was alleged that Yadav approached Quddusi and Pandey to ‘get the matter settled’ by manipulating ‘high-level functionaries.’
The CBI filed a charge sheet in July 2019, which charged Quddusi and others for the commission of offenses under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code.
The CBI bench headed by the Special Judge Anil Kumar Sisodia observing the charge sheet stated that, no further investigation was pending in the case and that the trial can proceed. However, 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 matter was adjourned till 31 January, after a copy of the charge sheet and other relevant material were supplied to the defense counsel by the prosecution.
The former Justice Quddusi held the post as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court in 1993 and further took charge as a permanent judge in 1995. He was then transferred to the Orissa High Court in 2004, and after serving for six years, he was transferred to the Chhattisgarh High Court. Subsequently, he retired in 2012.
