CBI Under Fire: Bribery Scandal in Madhya Pradesh Nursing Scam

The Congress has accused the CBI of corruption after two officers were caught taking bribes to hush up the investigation into nursing college irregularities in Madhya Pradesh. The party promised to bring up the issue in the upcoming state assembly session, questioning the CBI's integrity.

Opposition Congress on Thursday attacked the CBI, stating that its ''real face'' has been exposed after two of its officers were caught taking bribe to ''hush up'' the investigation in the alleged nursing scam in the state, and said it would raise the issue in the state assembly.

''We are going to vociferously raise the nursing scam in Madhya Pradesh in the state assembly (in the upcoming monsoon session) against the BJP government,'' state Congress' media wing chief Mukesh Nayak and Deputy Leader of the Opposition Hemant Katare told reporters here.

Last year, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to carry out a probe into the functioning of the nursing colleges following allegations of irregularities in their functioning. Earlier this week, the CBI said it has arrested 13 persons, including two of its own inspectors, in connection with the alleged nursing scam in Madhya Pradesh.

''CBI (officers) took money. They told the people of private (nursing) colleges to hand over their institutions and colleges to certain people...,'' Nayak alleged.

''They (CBI officers) are being caught red-handed taking Rs 10 lakh bribes. Now what else you want to ask about CBI. We don't have faith in CBI. Secondly, its real face has been exposed during the investigation before the entire nation,'' he said in response to a query. ''They should have gone for an inquiry headed by a retired high court judge, and he should have been assisted by two sitting judges of the district courts. Had they constituted such a committee, I think the investigation would have come to a logical end,'' the Congress leader said.

National Students' Union of India's Madhya Pradesh coordinator Ravi Parmar, who also addressed the press conference, said that after the Gwalior bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the CBI to conduct a probe into the functioning of nursing colleges in the state in April last year, the central agency inspected 308 such institutes.

It furnished its report to the high court in January this year, stating that it found 169 colleges suited to be run. The CBI found 73 colleges lacking in infrastructure and 66 unsuited, he said.

Right now, the CBI is conducting inspection of the remaining colleges numbering more than 300, Parmar said.

It was during the ongoing inspection that the CBI officials demanded bribes and were caught accepting it from the colleges to give them the clean chit, he said.

According to him, it is mandatory for a nursing college to have a 100-bed hospital and not less than 23,000 sq feet of built-up area. Most of these colleges do not have these facilities, he added.

Following the arrest of 13 persons, including its two officers, the CBI conducted searches at 31 places in Bhopal, Indore, Ratlam and Jaipur and recovered more than Rs 2.33 crore in cash, four gold bars, 36 digital devices and over 150 incriminating documents, the central agency has said.

The CBI inspectors were allegedly accepting bribes to give clean chit to unsuited nursing colleges, sources said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)