Inside story of how medical scam that rocked Supreme Court on Friday unravelled

It is a story that began simultaneously with an India Today sting aired on August 3 about corruption and how various medical colleges barred by the Supreme Court were still admitting colleges despite poor infrastructure and inability to meet the bar.

At the same time, the health ministry conducted a hearing of these medical colleges on the orders of the Supreme Court. Some of these colleges figured in the India Today sting.

What has followed since has been a free for all culminating in the slinging match that passed off for a seven judge Bench hearing the medical college matter versus senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

It began with the CBI raiding the residence of the neighbour of a top television journalist on August 3. Even as the raid was on, the journalist walked into the house and literally into the net of CBI. He was allegedly the conduit between some of the medical colleges and officials of the health ministry.

FIR AGAINST ACCUSED

In the FIR registered subsequently, the journalist's name did not figure but he lost his job. Unknown Officials of the health ministry were named. Intercepted conversations between top echelons of power, the middlemen and the medical college owners threw up some interesting names of politicians who could be involved.

Sources told India Today that a minister of state in the Union Cabinet was dropped on these very charges of financial impropriety although the CBI later denied they had evidence of the involvement of the said minister.

What followed subsequently in the last month or so amounts to what can be called judicial anarchy. A medical college sought permission from the Bench hearing the case, none less than the Chief Justice himself, to withdraw the case. The CJI consented but with a caveat that the college would not get permission from any court in the country to admit students for the year 2017-18.

PERMISSION TO COLLEGE

The college then approached the Lucknow Bench. A judge of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad high court in contravention of this order went and gave permission to the college to admit students.

Top CBI sources claim they have evidence of malpractices that took place in this permission being given. Officials are however silent on whether permission was sought from the Chief Justice to raid the judge or if permission is denied. CBI officials also refused to deny or admit whether a PE was actually filed against the judge concerned.

What is for certain is that the judge was transferred out from Lucknow to the High Court at Allahabad. If that was not enough, in October the CBI raided a retired judge of the Orissa High Court in trying to get p[permission to various medical colleges through the Supreme Court.

The judge according to sources boasted of his connections within the highest echelons of the judiciary. While Bhushan says the CBI has evidence about this, the question is if that was the case, then why did the medical college have to withdraw their plea from the Supreme Court.

WHY DID THE CBI NOT OPPOSE?

The CBI too will have a lot of answering to do if the case documents are laid out in open court. If this was such an open and shut case and the evidence against Justice Qudussi so strong, why did the CBI not oppose his bail when the lower court granted him bail with 5 days, something unheard of in cases as sensitive as this where so many high profile people are named. Interestingly, those arrested along with Qudussi were not granted bail.

While the Supreme Court has reacted sternly to Justice Chalameshwar appropriating the authority to hear a case which has not been designated by the Chief Justice, it is judicial anarchy at the lower levels too where a lower court judge can defy the orders of the Supreme Court to pass favourable judgements that will come up for scrutiny.

VIDEO | Showdown in Supreme Court: What happened in apex court on Friday?