The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a fresh case against retired Allahabad high court judge Shri Narayan Shukla and his family members for allegedly acquiring disproportionate assets worth over ₹2.5 crore between 2014 and 2019, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday.
Shukla was earlier charge-sheeted by the federal agency in December 2021 in its judicial corruption probe involving Lucknow-based Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
In its latest first information report (FIR) filed on Wednesday, the CBI said “during the course of its previous investigation, sources informed that SN Shukla, being a public servant in the capacity of justice of high court of Allahabad at Lucknow bench, has enriched himself illicitly and acquired assets by corrupt and illegal means in the name of Suchita Tiwari (his second wife as claimed by Suchita Tiwari in her application filed in CBI court in Delhi) and Saideen Tiwari (brother of Kesh Kumari, Shukla’s first wife)”.
The agency has claimed in the FIR, reviewed by HT, that total disproportionate assets acquired between April 2014 and December 2019 amount to ₹2,54,56,786.
Interestingly, the PIMS bribery scandal also took place during this period.
Shukla, who retired in July 2020, is accused of taking a bribe for passing an order that favoured the Lucknow-based medical college, which was disbarred in May 2017 from admitting students by the Medical Council of India (MCI), the country’s medical education regulator.
He was under investigated in the bribery case along with retired Odisha high court judge IM Quddusi, Bhagwan Prasad Yadav, and Palash Yadav of Prasad Education Trust, an intermediary, Bhawana Pandey and another alleged middleman Sudhir Giri.
Overall, two cases were filed in the Prasad Education Trust matter – first in September 2017 naming Quddusi and middlemen, and another in December 2019 naming Shukla and others.
Also Read:CBI files charge sheet against Retd Justice Shri Narayan Shukla
According to CBI, the Lucknow-based medical college, along with 46 other medical colleges, was debarred by MCI from admitting students for academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 due to substandard facilities and non-fulfilment of required criteria.
The MCI decision was initially challenged by Prasad Institute before the Supreme Court. The CBI’s FIR said a conspiracy was hatched and the petition was withdrawn from the top court, and a writ petition was filed before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on August 24, 2017.
It added that Quddusi and BP Yadav of Prasad Trust met justice Shukla on the morning of August 25, 2017 at his residence in Lucknow, which is when the bribe is believed to have been exchanged. The CBI alleged the petition was heard the same day by the division bench of the high court comprising justice SN Shukla, and a favourable order was passed.
Former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra ordered an investigation against Shukla on a complaint by Uttar Pradesh advocate general Raghvendra Singh in which the latter alleged judicial malpractice. A three-member committee, comprising then Madras high court chief justice Indira Banerjee, then Sikkim high court chief justice SK Agnihotri and Madhya Pradesh high court judge PK Jaiswal, found Shukla guilty of judicial irregularities in January 2018, after which his impeachment was recommended to the President of India.
Shukla, who was a sitting judge at the Lucknow bench of Allahabad HC at the time, was debarred from entering the court premises and all the judicial and administrative work was taken away from him.
Later, in July 2019, former CJI Ranjan Gogoi gave CBI the permission to file a case in the matter. Gogoi also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi recommending Shukla’s removal. Shukla eventually retired in July 2020.