The police had earlier filed a chargesheet in the case against 14 persons, including five government employees, on various charges.

The court took a serious note of the case diary in which the statement of Dr Umakant Singh, the Ayurveda Directorate officer-in-charge inducted in the counselling board for the 2021-22 academic year, was recorded under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

The court also ordered release of Dr Ritu Garg, an accused in the case. Garg, who runs a diagnostic centre and an ayurvedic college, was arrested in February this year in connection with the case lodged at the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow last year on charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy among others.

In his statement, Dr Singh had stated that in 2019 malpractices were adopted in the admission process and huge money was taken from the colleges for allotment of students for PG courses. The court found that the investigating officer did not dispute the contents of Dr Singh’s statement in the case diary.

“In the statement of Dr Umakant, serious allegations were levelled against senior officers of the state government as well as a minister, this court is of the view that the sanctity of the statement needs a thorough investigation. In such circumstances, while exercising the inherent powers conferred by Article 226 of the Constitution read with Section 482 of the CrPC, this court directs the CBI director to register a case…in relation to malpractices in the admission process of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the Ayush Department in 2019,” read an order by Justice Rajeev Singh on Wednesday.

The court fixed August 1 as the next date of hearing and directed the CBI to place the report through an affidavit.

The court observed, “From a perusal of the statement given by Dr Umakant Singh, it is evident that huge money was usurped by various persons in the admission process in 2019 in the name of compliance of the order of the Supreme Court. The investigating officer present before this court at the time of the argument accepted that the allegations levelled by Dr Singh are very serious and were not verified by any senior government officer.”

The court cannot “simply shut its eyes” to such wrongdoings by the authorities for admission for UG and PG courses and that too in the name of compliance of the Supreme Court order, depriving eligible students as also to grave lapses on the part of the investigating agency,” the bench said.

The court directed the Special Task Force (STF) Deputy Superintendent of Police to hand over all the relevant documents to the CBI.

The HC Senior Registrar was directed to communicate the order with the CBI Director, Additional Chief Secretary, state Department of Home and also the CBI counsel.

The case, according to the police, is related to the scam wherein 891 ineligible students were allowed to get admission through counselling at different colleges — government as well as private.

It has further been submitted that during the course of investigation, statements of students allotted colleges by the counselling board were recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC, in which they categorically stated that they were lured to get admission and that they should not be worried about the marks they obtained in the NEET examination (2021).

The Uptron company, a state undertaking, requested for allowing it to conduct the NEET 2021 counselling for which an order was issued by Shailendra Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Ayush, UP, on December 7, 2021.

The Uptron engaged another firm, V-3 Soft Solution, which in turn, executed an agreement with Techno Ocean IT Solution for the purpose.

Also, the counselling was conducted offline instead of online against the provisions of the government order, it was alleged. It emerged that the private colleges wanted to admit

more students so that they had less seats lying vacant that academic year.