The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday searched the premises of Dental Council of India’s (DCI) executive committee members Jayakar Shetty in Bangalore, Sateesh Kumar Reddy in Hyderabad and Bharat Shetty in Mangalore, following information about them having taken bribes for granting approval to private colleges to run various courses despite them not having the prescribed, mandatory infrastructure and staff.
The searches were conducted at 10 places reportedly on the basis of inputs given by two DCI members.
Searches were also conducted in six private dental colleges — Chennai, Namakkal, Jabalpur, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mangalore — in connection with the case.
The lid came off the countrywide scam after a member of the DCI, S. Murukesan, was allegedly caught red-handed by the CBI while receiving bribes from officials of a private dental college for arranging clearances from the Council for allowing post-graduate courses.
“During questioning, Murukesan allegedly spilled the beans, resulting in the arrest of another DCI member, Gunaseelan Rajan, who was arrested by the agency 10 days later on January 18 from Chennai,” a CBI official said.