Medical College Bribery Scam: Former Orissa High Court Judge I.M Quddusi Moves Court Against Leak Of Phone Records

Former Orissa High Court judge IM Quddusi has moved a Delhi Court against leak of phone records between him and other accused in the Lucknow Medical College Bribery Scam.

Taking note, Special Judge Manoj Jain sought response from the CBI by January 22 on the plea which alleged that the document was confidential and was not even supplied to the accused but given to people outside the probe agency.

The application, filed on Quddusi's behalf by advocate Vijay Aggarwal, said this gave rise to "grave suspicion and apprehension of interference of third parties into the investigation of the present matter".

Some major dailies had given out details of the purported transcript of the alleged conversation between three persons including Quddusi, claiming that their phones were tapped by the CBI.

The reports had spoken of conversations between Quddusi, a middleman and B P Yadav, owner of UP-based medical college, Prasad Education Trust.

Quddusi's plea said that "monitoring of the investigation is essential to find out as to whether the alleged conversations and PE report has been leaked by someone within the CBI or they have been stolen, which is essential so as to ensure that it does not become a 'Trial by Media' and ensure that administration of justice is not compromised by interference by third parties in the investigation of the matter."

It also said the possibility of tampering of the documents leaked "cannot be ruled out, for which also inquiry is required to be conducted."

The Medical College Scam

A medical college run by Prasad Education Trust allegedly collaborated with former Orissa High Court judge IM Quddusi who used his influence to 'settle' a matter involving their plea to set up medical colleges pending in the Supreme Court.

The Trust owned one of the 46 medical colleges barred by the central government from admitting students. The accused were subsequently granted bail, but the same was not challenged by CBI.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)  arrested retired Orissa High Court judge I.M. Quddusi and four others on charges of conspiring to reverse a government order barring the medical college from admitting students because of substandard facilities and non-fulfillment of required criteria.

The others arrested in the case were 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, the CBI sources said.

The Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR), a non-governmental organisation represented by Bhushan, had moved a petition seeking an independent court-monitored probe into the alleged scam. They had recently also released recorded conversation of the accused. 

The petition also alleged that FIR by the CBI says that money was collected in the name of judges to get a favourable order in the matter which was heard by a bench of CJI, hence the CJI should recuse himself and not hear the petition. 

Quddusi and a few others were arrested in the case by the CBI and later granted bail by a court.

Bhushan alleged in a Press Conference on Tuesday that from the recorded conversation of the accused, including Qudussi, it was clear that there was a serious conspiracy of bribe in scam case.

However, he clarified that he was not alleging that the CJI was involved in the conspiracy and said that a thorough investigation was required in it.

Dismissing their plea in November last year, the  CJI's bench had said the Chief Justice was "the master of roster" and had the prerogative to allocate matters before any bench.

The bench also said that there cannot be any probe and no FIR can be lodged against sitting judges without the competent authority, in this case, the CJI's approval.

 Dismissing the petition, the three-judge bench  comprising Justice R.K. Agarwal, Justice A.K. Mishra and Justice A M Khanwilkar also termed the petitions 'contempt' and an attempt at 'forum shopping'. 

'Forum shopping' is a practice adopted by litigants to get their cases heard by a particular court for a favorable judgement.