The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has terminated the services of inspector Rahul Raj and removed three other officers from its Bhopal office for allegedly accepting bribes from staff of nursing colleges in Madhya Pradesh. These colleges were under investigation for irregularities, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The CBI has named four agency officers—inspector Rahul Raj, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ashish Prasad, and two Madhya Pradesh police inspectors on CBI deputation, Rishikant Asathe and Sushil Kumar Majoka—in its First Information Report (FIR) related to the bribery racket. Additionally, 19 others, including chairpersons and staff of nursing colleges and some intermediaries, have been named in the FIR.
Following its “zero tolerance” policy towards corruption, the CBI terminated Rahul Raj with immediate effect. Administrative action has been initiated against DSP Prasad, and the agency has written to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for further action. Asathe and Majoka have been removed from deputation and sent back to the state police.
This action comes after a CBI vigilance team from Delhi caught Raj, the Bhopal Anti-Crime Bureau (ACB) inspector, accepting a ₹10 lakh bribe from Malay College of Nursing chairman Anil Bhaskaran and his wife Suma Anil Bhaskar on Sunday. So far, 13 out of the 23 accused named in the FIR have been arrested for providing favorable inspection reports to nursing colleges in exchange for bribes.
A special court in Bhopal has remanded the accused in CBI custody until May 29. The agency acted on inputs and surveillance from its internal vigilance unit, which indicated that one of the support teams assigned by the Madhya Pradesh high court to examine infrastructure in nursing colleges was involved in corruption.
CBI investigations revealed that the officers were allegedly collecting ₹2 to ₹10 lakh from each institute to issue favorable reports. Despite this scandal, the CBI maintains that it is inappropriate to question the integrity of the entire investigation, as only one of seven teams was involved in the corruption, and vigilance has been maintained over all teams.
A 2022 investigation by HT had exposed ghost nursing colleges in Madhya Pradesh that existed only on paper, lacking staff, students, teachers, and the mandatory 100-bed hospitals. Following this revelation, the Madhya Pradesh high court ordered a CBI probe in September last year.
The CBI has inspected 308 out of 364 nursing colleges as directed by the high court. The probe found 169 colleges suitable to run nursing courses, 74 colleges with minimal deficiencies that can be rectified, and 65 colleges unsuitable for running nursing courses. Whistleblower and petitioner Vishal Baghel expressed, “We will move application before the high court against this corruption because nursing colleges are putting all the efforts to save their business of crore of rupees that is being run for years.”
