CBI Court Grants Bail to RGUHS Ex - Vice Chancellor

A special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has granted bail to P S Prabhakaran, former vice-chancellor of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) and 17 other accused, allegedly involved in the Post-Graduate Entrance Test (PGET)-2006 scam.

Special court judge Harish Kumar on Tuesday granted bail to 18 of the 20 accused in the scam. Two others were absent at the time of hearing.

The CBI had filed chargesheets against P S Prabhakaran, former registrar V I Hukkeri, 16 students and two middlemen in the special court.

In the chargesheet, the CBI has stated that P S Prabhakaran and four other Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences officials had fraudulently given access to Nitish R Desai and 15 other students to question papers for monetary benefit.

The 16 students against whom chargesheets were filed and who have been now released on bail are: Nitish Desai, Anand Haliyal, S A Giridhar, Mekhala Dwarkanath, Sandeep B E, Meha Bansali, S C Ashok, H Srinivas, Bhavani Hulinaykar, Sida Tagore, R Babita, Nandita Shetty, Harsha S K, M H Raman, Shantanu Shavkar and Girish B.

Two middlemen from the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences __ Rajgopal Reddy and Sumanth Hegde __ have also been chargesheeted.

The CBI had slapped cases section 420 (Cheating) and 409 (Criminal breach of trust) and 120 (B) read with section 34 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Appearing for P S Prabhakaran and V I Hukkeri, senior advocate Kiran Javali argued that the accused were not arrested during the course of investigation and the sections charged against the accused were bailable offences.

In that case, custodial interrogation of accused was not necessary, he argued.