Agencies/New Delhi
Former minister and senior Congress Party MP Rasheed Masood was sentenced to four years in jail yesterday in a corruption case involving admissions to medical colleges.
Masood, a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, was convicted last week.
Masood, 67, was convicted of fraudulently nominating undeserving candidates from across the country to the MBBS seats allotted to Tripura medical colleges from the central pool.
Two other public servants convicted in the case - former Indian Police Service officer Gurdial Singh, and retired Indian Administrative Services officer Amal Kumar Roy, who was then secretary to Tripura chief minister Sudhir Ranjan Majumdar - were also given four years’ imprisonment.
The Central Bureau of Investigation court also slapped a fine of Rs60,000 on Masood and Rs100,000 each on the government officials.
Nine students, who were fraudulently given admission in the medical colleges and were convicted for cheating, were also given a year’s imprisonment each by the court.
Masood was the minister of health in the 11-month V P Singh government between 1990 and 1991.
Masood, who was immediately taken into custody after the sentencing, will lose the right to contest polls for the next 10 years since a convicted leader cannot fight elections for six years from the date of release from prison.
He will be taken to the Tihar jail.
He was found guilty of “fraudulently nominating undeserving candidates” to seats in medical colleges across India.
With the sentencing, he faces disqualification from the parliament.
Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja said the conviction and sentencing of Masood will send out a very strong message to all political parties.
He said the verdict is a great leap in the maturing of Indian democracy.
“This judgment will send a very strong message to all political parties, to all politicians, to all those who are in public political life. In fact, this should be understood as a great leap in the maturing of our democracy,” he said.
The Supreme Court in July ruled that convicted MPs and state legislators would be barred from office if they were sentenced for two years or more.
A recent ordinance passed by the cabinet overturning the Supreme Court ban is likely to be withdrawn after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said the move by his government to protect convicted MPs was “complete nonsense.”
On Monday, former railway minister and MP Laloo Prasad Yadav was convicted in a notorious case known as the “fodder scam.”
He was charged with embezzling state funds intended for cattle fodder while he was chief minister of Bihar.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief is due to be sentenced tomorrow. Lawyers say he will be sent to jail for a minimum of four years which means he too faces disqualification.
l Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has convened a meeting of his cabinet today to review the controversial ordinance, sources said yesterday.
The meeting will be held at the official residence of the prime minister here.
Before that a meeting of the Congress core group, which includes party chief Sonia Gandhi and the prime minister, is also expected, the sources said.
The ordinance is currently with President Pranab Mukherjee after the cabinet cleared it on September 24.
It was earlier cleared by the Congress core group.
Though reversing its own decision and withdrawing the ordinance would not be an easy decision for the cabinet, party sources said there was not much option left before the government.
