CBI charge-sheets ex-HC judge in graft case

New Delhi : The CBI has filed a charge sheet against former Orissa High Court judge Justice (retd) I M Quddusi for allegedly trying to influence the verdict in a case heard by the Supreme Court by manipulating several "high-level functionaries", officials said here on Wednesday.

The agency in its charge sheet filed before a special court had also named six other accused in the case. Along with Quddusi, B P Yadav and Palash Yadav of Prasad Educational Trust, which runs a medical college in Lucknow, middleman Biswanath Agrawala, hawala operator Ramdev Saraswat, Bhavna Pandey and Sudhir Giri have been named as accused in the charge sheet for criminal conspiracy and corruption, they said.

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", they said.

Bhubaneswar-based Agrawala claimed to use close links with senior public functionaries to get the matter settled in their favour, the CBI had alleged in the FIR. The agency had arrested Quddusi, B P Yadav and Palash Yadav, Agrawala, Pandey and Saraswat in 2017.

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