Dental council member arrested

The CBI on Tuesday arrested one Dental Council of India (DCI) member based in Chennai for allegedly demanding Rs 1 crore from a private college and accepting part of it to get DCI’s approval for a post-graduate (PG) course.

The CBI sleuths also arrested three officials of the private dental college and a hospital run by the Adi Parasakthi, a religious trust at Melmaruvathur, about 45 km from here, in connection with the alleged bribery case, sources said.

A case has been registered against the Chennai-based DCI member, the institution’s managing director, administrative officer and two others, besides a few other unknown persons, the investigating agency said.

The case has been registered under various sections including Section 120(B) of the IPC (criminal conspiracy) and under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The college had applied to the DCI to get its nod for starting a new PG course in 2012, the CBI said. DCI from New Delhi had conducted a “pre-verification inspection” to ensure the college had necessary infrastructure and facilities to start the course. However, during inspection, some deficiencies were noticed and the college authority was asked to rectify the same to comply with DCI norms.  Meanwhile, the college deputed its Administrative Officer to approach one of the DCI members, to short-circuit the approval.