ED: Accused used bribe for personal and biz purposes

Kochi: The chargesheet filed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the controversial Karakkonam medical college corruption case says that the accused who are linked to the college management misused the money collected as bribe for their personal and business purposes.
The chargesheet was submitted on Wednesday evening at the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Kaloor.
Dr Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College trust, Karakkonam, Thiruvananthapuram, is the first accused in the case. Former president of CSI church Dharmaraj Rasalam, director of the medical college Bennet Abraham and former Church secretary T T Praveen are among the list of the accused in the bribery case linked to the alleged duping of parents by promising admission to their children. Rasalam and Abraham are second and third accused in the case, respectively.
The money laundering case against the medical college authorities stems from multiple cases registered by the Kerala police, based on the complaint filed by parents of students who sought admission at the college. Parents alleged that the college collected huge amounts of funds from them on the pretext of giving admission to their children in the medical college but they failed to give admission even after taking money.
In February 2020, the Kerala High Court had ordered a crime branch probe into the complaints. After two years, HC had quashed the crime branch investigation report which gave clean chits to Rasalam and Abraham. Then, ED, which registered a money laundering case against the college, had interrogated Rasalam and Abraham.