The Chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education, Prof. R.A. Yadav who is under investigation for a criminal offence, has been placed under suspension today so that there is no possibility of investigation being influenced by his continuation in office.
As regards the three other officers under investigation along with Prof. Yadav; Prof. H.C. Rai, Advisor has been repatriated to his parent cadre, Smt. Rabinder Randhawa, Deputy Director, a contract employee’s contract has been terminated and Shri Om Dalal, Asstt. Director has been placed under suspension. The Member-Secretary of the AICTE Shri Narayan Rao has been deemed to have been suspended from the date of his arrest, earlier this month, by the CBI.
Prof. S.S. Mantha, Vice Chairman, AICTE will hold temporary charge as Chairman of the Council.
AICTE top officials were caught red-handed accepting bribes. Cases had been registered against AICTE chairman R.A. Yadav, an adviser in the council, a deputy director and a regional officer under Section 120-B of the IPC (criminal conspiracy) and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The raids were conducted after a complaint from the owner of a Faridabad institute, which alleged that R.A. Yadav and the three officials demanded money for sanctioning an increase in the number of students.
K. Narayan Rao had been arrested when he was allegedly accepting Rs 5 lakh as the first instalment of a Rs 20-lakh bribe he is said to have demanded to grant recognition to a engineering college in Hyderabad. The Faridabad institute owner had filed a complaint alleging that a middleman, had asked for the money on Rao’s behalf. The middle man has also been arrested.
Both the offices and homes of the AICTE’s regional officers in Bhopal and Chennai were searched. A case of abuse of power was lodged against the Bhopal officer for allegedly facilitating approval for a chain that didn’t have proper infrastructure.
