Prasad Educational Trust: Caught in a controversy

The Trust allegedly hired services of power brokers and middlemen in getting an MCI ban on admitting students to its medical institute revoked

There is nothing extraordinary about the white-hued edifice of the Prasad Educational Trust and the adjoining campus housing the Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on the busy Lucknow-Kanpur highway.

A much humbler Chauhan dhaba nearby or the recently-launched Hotel Ramada Lucknow, basking in sprawling grandeur a little farther, perhaps gets the notice of commuters whizzing past the nondescript stretch of the highway.

The Trust, on the outskirts of Lucknow, today is at the centre of a massive controversy and scam, which seemingly has more entangled wires in it than what has come out.

The unfolding saga has since witnessed the involvement of the Supreme Court, Allahabad High Court, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a retired high court judge, power brokers, social activists et al.

The genesis of the scam lies in the Trust allegedly hiring the services of power brokers and middlemen in getting the Medical Council of India (MCI) ban on admitting students to its medical institute revoked.

The scam, currently being probed by the CBI, has implicit and explicit dimensions that purportedly not only signify a rot in the higher judiciary but also points to the ostensibly nefarious axis of power brokers, business persons, hawala operators, and members of the Bench, retired or otherwise.

The PIMS was one of the 46 medical colleges debarred from admitting students owing to alleged sub-standard infrastructure and not conforming to the teaching criteria.
 

In this context, Justice I M Quddusi, who had served at the Orissa High Court between 2004 and 2010 before his retirement, and his alleged accomplice, Delhi-resident Bhawana Pandey, supposedly assured the Prasad Education Trust of facilitating a favourable settlement of the matter, which is being heard in the Supreme Court.
 

According to the CBI, Justice Quddusi and Pandey also roped in Biswanath Agrawala, an alleged middleman, to execute the task. Agrawala had claimed he enjoyed a good rapport with “influential people” and promised to get the task done.

During subsequent raids and searches, the CBI allegedly seized almost Rs 2 crore on the premises of Agrawala.

Thus far, the CBI has arrested Justice Quddusi, Pandey, and Agrawala, apart from Trust Chairman B P Yadav and his son Palash Yadav. 

The case has not only put a question mark on the probity of government organs but also created an embarrassing situation for Supreme Court judges, including Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra and Justice J Chelameswar, with relation to the hearing of the case. Currently, the accused are on bail.

The Supreme Court came into the picture when the Trust challenged the decision to debar it from admitting medical students. In August, a Bench headed by Justice Misra directed the Centre to review its ban order. However, the Centre refused to provide relief to the institute.

Later, the PIMS reportedly contacted Justice Quddusi and Pandey through a person based in Meerut. Soon, the three allegedly hatched a criminal conspiracy to get the matter settled.

Although the institute had challenged the government order afresh in the Supreme Court, it withdrew the plea on the purported suggestion of Justice Quddusi and instead moved the Allahabad High Court, which stayed the debarment order.

However, the MCI challenged the Allahabad High Court order in the Supreme Court, which also admitted a related writ petition of the PIMS. At this point, Justice Quddusi and Pandey roped in Agrawala for allegedly influencing the Supreme Court judges.

Meanwhile, the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms filed a petition in the Supreme Court for an SIT (special investigation team) probe by a retired chief justice. Social activist and petitioner Kamini Jaiswal contended a probe was vital because the case smacked of corruption in the highest echelons of judiciary.

Justice Chelameswar ordered setting up a Constitution Bench of five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court for hearing the petition seeking an SIT probe. However, Justice Misra listed the matter in another court even as Justice Chelameswar noted the matter relating to the SIT probe could be heard by a Constitution Bench without the CJI’s implicit observation. This had pitted the two senior judges against each other.

In the backdrop of the CBI probe and the case being sub-judice, the Trust officials are maintaining a stony silence. Repeated attempts to contact the Yadav family, the promoters of the Trust, for getting its version on the episode failed to elicit any response.

A close aide of B P Yadav told Business Standard that the chairman had decided not to speak to the media since the case was being probed by the CBI. He said Yadav’s phone had been taken by the central agency.

The Trust is located in Sarai Shahzadi in the  Banthara area of Lucknow, which has a familiar rural hinterland setting with a plethora of engineering and management institutes dotting the highway. The PIMS also operates a multi-specialty hospital and blood bank in its expansive yet largely dreary campus.

There were also reports that following the ban, the parents and guardians of the students of the 2017 batch also demanded a refund. However, PIMS principal Shoukat Nijamsaheb Kazi said no student had been admitted in 2017 and any money deposited by the students might have been collected by agents and the institute had nothing to do with it.

The 2016 batch of 61 medical students continues with its course. The ban was enforced for the admission process in 2017, he said. Without commenting on the MCI ban or the merits of the case, he said the institute would put up its case in the Allahabad High Court.