MP nursing college bribery 'scam': Arrested CBI inspector terminated from service

NEW DELHI: The CBI has terminated the services of its inspector Rahul Raj who was arrested by the agency while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from the chairman of a Madhya Pradesh-based nursing college, officials said on Wednesday. Following its policy of "zero tolerance towards corruption", the agency sacked Raj under Article 311 of the Constitution that allows termination of services of government employees, they said.

Raj was caught "red-handed" on Sunday while allegedly accepting an 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. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has also attached its Deputy Superintendent of Police Ashish Prasad to the headquarters. He was named in the FIR in the case.

Sushil Kumar Majoka and Rishi Kant Asathe, both on attachment with the CBI from the Madhya Pradesh Police, will be repatriated to the state police soon as their alleged role in the bribery racket has surfaced. The CBI swung into action after inputs and surveillance by its internal vigilance unit indicated that one of the support teams constituted on the orders of the Madhya Pradesh High Court to examine infrastructure in nursing colleges in the state was indulging in corruption.

Bribery case: 13 people arrested so far

"CBI, ACB, Bhopal, had constituted seven core teams and three-to-four support teams, comprising officials from CBI, those nominated by nursing colleges in Madhya Pradesh and patwaris, in compliance of the directions of the high court for conducting statewide inspections to ascertain whether nursing colleges satisfied the laid down norms and standards for nursing colleges in respect of infrastructural facilities and faculty," CBI spokesperson said.

The agency said during monitoring of inspections being carried out by the various teams, officials of one of the support teams, including Raj, were found to be indulging in corruption. The spokesperson said it was observed that they were giving favourable inspection reports in lieu of bribes collected through conduits.

The CBI has arrested 13 people, including Raj, for giving favourable inspection reports to nursing colleges in Madhya Pradesh in exchange for bribes collected through conduits, the officials said. "A case registered by the CBI reinforces its zero-tolerance policy towards corruption and shows that the CBI does not spare its own officials if found deviating from core values of the organisation," the spokesperson said.

The CBI probe into the nursing college scam case in Madhya Pradesh has revealed that its officers were allegedly collecting Rs 2 to Rs 10 lakh from each institute to give favourable reports after inspection, the central probe agency said.