Court tasks CBI to probe UP case

Alleged scam in Ayush colleges came to fore late last year

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has directed the CBI to investigate the alleged fraudulent admission scam in Ayush colleges.

The high court has also ordered to take strict action if the roles of former minister Dharam Singh Saini and the then additional chief secretary are found to raise suspicion.

While granting conditional bail to petitioner Ritu Garg, the single bench of Justice Rajeev Singh issued this direction to the CBI. The Uttar Pradesh government had already recommended

CBI probetwice. Saini was the Ayush minister in the previous Yogi Adityanath government but later left the BJP.

Bribe

The alleged scam in Ayush colleges came to the fore in November 2022. The Uttar Pradesh government twice recommended to get the entire matter investigated by the CBI, but no further action was taken in this matter.

Saini has been accused of taking bribe in admissions. The statement given by his personal secretary has piled more pressure on him.

In 2021-22, a board was constituted by the Directorate of Ayurveda for counselling. Due to non-availability of the IT cell, the counselling contract was given to a private agency, under the supervision of the board.

The private agency was responsible for everything, from counselling to verification. After admission, seat allotment was also done. However, 1,181 ineligible students were detected in the merit list for NEET counselling. Out of these, 22 students had not even appeared in NEET test. The Ayush scam was investigated by the UP STF (Special Task Force).