New Delhi, July 17: The CBI swooped down on top officials of AICTE on Thursday and has arrested a member secretary besides registering corruption cases against its Chairman and others.
While Member Secretary, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) K Narayan Rao was arrested by the CBI in the national capital for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs five lakh for inspection and approval of an engineering college in Hyderabad, the agency has registered corruption cases against AICTE Chairman R A Yadav, Advisor H C Rai and Deputy Director Robinder Randhawa in a separate corruption case.
The CBI has also conducted searches at AICTE offices in Bhopal where the regional office had allegedly given approval to a leading chain of engineering colleges which did not have the necessary infrastructure, a CBI spokesperson said in New Delhi.
Giving details of the case against Yadav, he alleged that Regional officer of AICTE had demanded money for
processing a case of increase in intake of seats of a Faridabad-based engineering college.
The owner of the college brought the alleged illegal demand of the regional officer Sriom Dalal to the knowledge of
AICTE Chairman, Advisor and Deputy Director, but no action was taken by them and Dalal allegedly continued to harass the owner for money.
The college did not succumb to the illegal demands of the accused persons, he said, adding after legal formalities, a case was registered against the four under 120-B (criminal
conspiracy) and Section seven and eight of Prevention of Corruption Act.
Efforts to reach for Yadav’s reaction did not fructify. Meanwhile, Narayan along with his purported middleman S B Subba Rao was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs five lakh from a person who wanted to open an engineering college in Andhra Pradesh.
Giving details, the spokesperson said a middleman had asked the complainant, a college owner, for a bribe of Rs 20
lakh on behalf of Member-Secretary of AICTE for inspection and approval of his college and added the owner of the college had agreed to pay Rs five lakh as the first instalment.
During searches, a cash of Rs nine lakh has been recovered from Narayan’s residence, the spokesperson alleged.
CBI has registered a case against Sanjay Sharma, AICTE Bhopal Regional Officer for allegedly abusing his official position.
The accused, “facilitated approval of chain of engineering colleges at Bhopal of Radha Raman Group of Institutes. It is alleged that these institutes had got the approval of AICTE by misrepresenting the facts without having proper infrastructure.
The Regional Officer conspired with President, Tapasya Shiksha Samiti, which is running these institutes,” the spokesperson said.
The CBI spokesperson said “in the surprise check at Regional Office at AICTE in Chennai, some files have been recovered.”
–Agencies