A special court today awarded a five-year jail term to former Bar Council of India Vice Chairman R Dhanpal Raj, its member Rajindra Singh Rana and two others for taking bribe in lieu of granting approval to a law school in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.
Besides Raj and Rana, the court also punished convicts -- Milan Kumar Dey, BCI's ex-member and Yash Pal Singh, former Associate Professor at Khurja-based NREC college while terming the act as "extortion".
"It is clear that the accused have been seeking bribe from old and new colleges as a matter of right. The demand in form is nothing but extortion and also amounts to professional misconduct...
"I hold that prosecution has been able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt against all the accused persons for the charged offences," Special CBI Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna said.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs three lakhs each on Rana and Dey, according to a CBI spokesperson.
Dhanpal Raj has been asked to pay a fine of Rs one lakh while Yashpal Singh Rs two lakhs, CBI said.
A case was registered against the convicts for demanding Rs three lakhs from the Chairman of a private School of Law Studies of Bulandshahr (UP) for expediting the procedure of its recognition.
