MBBS seats case : Masood sentenced to 4 years in jail
Source: The Sangai Express / Agencies
New Delhi, October 01 2013:
Rajya Sabha member Rasheed Masood, convicted for fraudu-lently nominating undeserving candidates to MBBS seats in 1990-91, was on Tuesday sen-tenced to four years in jail.
A Congress Working Co-mmittee member, Masood is all set to be disqualified under the provisions of RP Act sin-ce he has been convicted and sentenced under sections of various laws including the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 .
Rasheed Masood had during the hearing sought the be- nefit of probation, citing his long service to the nation and health reasons even as CBI demanded nothing less than seven years jail term for him and a hefty fine.
"I have been an MP for the last 30 years and I am a law abiding citizen.
Considering the nature of the case, my age and clean antecedents, I should be given the benefit of probation," counsel for 67-year-old Masood told special CBI judge JPS Malik while arguing on the quantum of sentence.
CBI prosecutor VN Ojha, however, opposed his plea for probation, saying, "Rasheed Masood does not deserve an-ything less than seven years (in jail) and a hefty fine sho-uld be imposed because by nominating undeserving candidates including his own ne- phew, he had spoiled the career of meritorious students" .
Masood, minister of health in the VP Singh government between 1990 and 1991, was held guilty of fraudulently no-minating undeserving candi- dates to MBBS seats allotted to Tripura in medical colleges across the country from the central pool.
The prosecutor also said Masood is a person who is a "lawmaker turned into a lawbreaker" even after taking oa- th to abide by the Constitution which says all are equal before the law.
"He and the other two pub-lic servants convicted in the case should be given maximum punishment as the stu- dents who suffered nearly two decades ago cannot be compensated for," the prosecutor said.
The two other public servants convicted in the case are Gurdial Singh, a former IPS officer, and retired IAS official Amal Kumar Roy, the then secretary of Tripura chief minister Sudhir Ranjan Maj-umdar.
Masood was held guilty of offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC Sections 120-B (criminal co-nspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 468 (forgery).
He, however, was acquitted of the charge under Section 471 IPC (using as genuine a forged document) .
Masood's conviction is the first case after the July 10 Su-preme Court judgement that struck down sub-section 4 of Section 8 of Representation of People Act, under which incumbent MPs and MLAs could avoid disqualification till pendency of the appeal against conviction in a higher court.
Pleading for leniency, cou-nsel for Masood, a Rajya Sa- bha member belonging to Congress party, told the court that he is 67-years-old and is suffering from various ailments like heart disease, dia- betes and has been advised to do less stressful activities.
"Whatever judgement the court has passed, we accept it.
But my client (Masood) is continuously under medical treatment.
He is a person who cannot live without treatment and this can only be managed by hospitals and he has to be stress-free.
"Besides being an MP, he has worked for increasing exports from India bringing in crores of rupees inflows.
Considering all this, he should be released on probation," the counsel said.
The other convicts in the case have also been held guil-ty of similar offences.
Nine students who had fra-udulently got admission in the medical colleges have also been convicted for cheating.
Two of them, including Masood's nephew, were juvenile at the time of the of- fence and their case had been transferred to the Juvenile Justice Board on January 25, 2007 .
The then chief minister of Tripura Sudhir Ranjan Maju-mdar and then health minister of the state, Kashi Ram Reang were also accused in the case.
They passed away during the pendency of the trial.
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