New Delhi, October 1
A CBI court today sentenced Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Rasheed Masood to four years in jail in a corruption case involving recommendation of undeserving students for MBBS course in 1990-91.

Masood was the Union Health Minister in the National Front government headed by VP Singh when the students were fraudulently nominated to MBBS seats allotted to Tripura in medical colleges across the country from the Central pool.

Masood (67) was taken into custody immediately after the sentence was handed down. The judge rejected the plea for releasing him on probation in view of his age and the fact that he had been an MP for the past 30 years and a law-abiding citizen.

The CBI had opposed the plea for leniency, contending that he was a lawmaker who had turned into a lawbreaker. The trial court awarded four-year jail term to two public servants - Gurdial Singh, a former IPS officer, and retired IAS official Amal Kumar Roy, who was Secretary to the then Tripura Chief Minister Sudhir Ranjan Majumdar.

Majumdar and the then state Health Minister, Kashi Ram Reang, were also accused in the case, but they died during the course of the trial. Nine students, who were tried in the case, were awarded one-year imprisonment each for securing admission in medical colleges through fraudulent means.

Two of them, including Masood’s nephew, were juvenile at the time of the offence and their case had been transferred to the Juvenile Justice Board on January 25, 2007. The court further imposed a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh on Singh, Rs 1 lakh on Roy and Rs 40,000 each on the nine students.

The students have moved bail applications to enable them to file an appeal against their conviction and sentence before the Superior Court. The CBI had registered 11 cases in 1996 in connection with the admission scam, naming Masood in three of them.