Court rejects bail plea of ex-MCI president in assets case

A Delhi court today dismissed the bail plea of former Medical Council of India (MCI) president Ketan Desai in a case lodged against him for allegedly possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Special CBI judge OP Saini rejected the application of Desai saying he cannot be released on bail as the offence was grave. Moreover, the probe was at a nascent stage.

Earlier, the court had remanded the accused to judicial custody till July 20 when he was produced at the end of his eight-day custodial interrogation in the case.

Desai, who was granted bail on June 22 in a case of alleged corruption for allegedly taking bribe to accord sanction to a private medical college in Punjab, was arrested afresh in the assets case.

He was granted bail as CBI failed to file a probe report against him within the prescribed limit of 60 days. 

CBI had registered the DA case against Desai and his wife and mother in May for having assets worth over Rs 24 crore.

The former MCI president was arrested on April 22 by CBI
along with three others for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs
two crore to give permission to Gyan Sagar Medical College,
Patiala, to recruit a fresh batch of students.

The Delhi high court had earlier granted bail to Sukhwinder Singh, owner of Gyan Sagar Medical College, as also to Kanwaljit Singh, one of the professors of the college, and JP Singh, an alleged tout involved in the scam.

All the four have been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with inducing a public servant to accept bribe, criminal misconduct and payment of money.