The High Court of Karnataka has declined to quash the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against V.I. Hukkeri, the then registrar of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), in the case of illegality in the conduct of entrance exam for the postgraduate medical courses by the varsity in 2006.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while dismissing the petition filed by 66-year-old Dr. Hukkeri. The petitioner had questioned the CBI special court’s order of refusing to discharge him from the case.
Sanction not required
The High Court held that sanction for his prosecution under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, was not required as he was retired from the service when the CBI special court took cognisance of offences against him.
On need of sanction under Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the High Court said that this protection would be available while a public servant was acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official duty and not otherwise. In case of Dr. Hukkeri, the High Court said, the alleged acts of playing fraud on the varsity in connivance with the select students for leaking the question papers that were in his custody for a huge sum of money cannot be construed as part of discharge of official duties.
The CBI had alleged that leak of the question paper by the petitioner helped many students, who had scored low marks in their MBBS course, to score high marks and secure top ranks for securing admission to PG courses.
Accused no. 6 discharged
Meanwhile, the High Court discharged one Mekhala Dwarakanat B., who was arraigned as accused number six by the CBI in the case.
The court found that the CBI special court had wrongly found the results of both the polygraph and the brain mapping tests against her even though the tests had concluded that she had no knowledge of the crime and she was truthful in her answers.
Also, the High Court said that there was no material or evidence against her in the chargesheet. Hanumath Prasad, the then Assistant Registrar of the varsity, who had turned approver in the case, had only stated that she had met him and Dr. Hukkeri with regard to non-issuance of her hall ticket and nothing else, the High Court pointed out.
Not discharging her would result in parent injustice, the High Court said while noting that she was a rank student, had secured good marks throughout and has been a recipient of several encomiums.
