MP Nursing college corruption: CBI officer, chairmen of nursing colleges arrested

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Smashing a major bribery racket in Madhya Pradesh, the CBI has arrested 13 people, including an inspector working with the probe agency and the chairmen of two nursing colleges in the state for alleged corruption to get favourable inspection reports, officials said Monday. Teams had been constituted on the orders of the Madhya Pradesh High Court for conducting state-wide inspections to ascertain whether the colleges were following the laid down norms and standards for nursing colleges with respect to infrastructural facilities and faculty. The CBI action was initiated when an internal vigilance of the agency received inputs that its officers were involved in the alleged corruption in connection with the inspections. Raj was caught "red-handed" on Sunday while allegedly accepting illegal gratification of Rs 10 lakh from Malay College of Nursing Chairman Anil Bhaskaran and his wife Suma Anil, an official alleged.

The couple has also been arrested. Sushil Kumar Majoka, a Madhya Pradesh police personnel currently in CBI on attachment, was also taken into custody by the CBI, officials said. The CBI also arrested the chairman of Indore-based R D Memorial College of Nursing and Pharmacy, Indore Ravi Bhadoria, Director of Gwalior-based Bhaskar College of Nursing Jugal Kishor Sharma, Principal Bhopal-based Bhabha University Jalpana Adhikari and Om Goswami of Pratyansh College of Nursing and Paramedical, Indore, they said. The CBI had constituted seven core teams and three to four support teams comprising officials from the agency, those nominated by nursing colleges in the state and patwaris, in compliance with directions of the high court to conduct the inspections, the central agency said in a statement here. "During monitoring of inspections being carried out by various teams, officials of one of the support teams, including Rahul Raj, Inspector, CBI were found to be indulging in corrupt activities. "It was observed that they were giving favourable inspection reports in exchange for bribes collected through conduits," a CBI spokesperson said.

The internal vigilance of the CBI immediately swung into action and registered an FIR against 23 people, including Raj, three other CBI officials and conduits/touts. The arrest was followed by searches at 31 locations in Bhopal, Indore, Ratlam and Jaipur which resulted in the seizure of over Rs 2.33 crore in cash, four gold bars, 36 digital devices and over 150 incriminating documents, the CBI said. The crackdown resulted in the arrest of 13 accused people, including Raj, an inspector of MP Police on attachment with the CBI Sushil Kumar Majoka, touts Om Goswami, Ravi Bhadoria and Jugal Kishore, and three women so far. "The case registered by the CBI reinforces its zero-tolerance policy towards corruption and shows that CBI does not spare its own officials if found deviating from core values of the organisation," the spokesperson said. Other arrested accused include Sachin Jain, Radha Raman Sharma, former CEO Patel Motors, Indore, Mohd. Tanveer Khan, Preeti Tilakwar and Ved Sharma, the officials said. All of the arrested accused have been remanded in CBI custody till May 29, the CBI said. The agency has also initiated administrative action against the erring officials, it said.

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