Ara: A CBI team from Patna on Tuesday conducted raids at fake medical colleges located at Jagdeo Nagar locality under Nawada police station in Bhojpur district and also in Muzaffarpur and seized several documents and papers.

The CBI has registered a case in connection with the awarding of degrees to medical aspirants of different states in both allopathy and traditional medicine by the Ara-based "fake" university.

The premier investigating agency lodged an FIR on the directive of Patna High Court, which had earlier found gross anomalies in the affiliation granted to medical colleges at Muzaffarpur in Bihar, Faridabad in Haryana, Calcutta and Bangalore.

The July 13 FIR was lodged against the director-cum-principal, Council of Patent Medicines, Dr Gaya Prasad Nirbhay and the director, JP Institute of Patent Medical Science and Hospital at Bairiya in Muzaffarpur, Dr B.K. Srivastava, and also some unknown officials of the registration department for running fake medical colleges without permission from the Indian Medical Council and Homeopathic Central Council.

The case has been lodged under sections 120B read with 420 of IPC and Section 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Lalit Kumar Jaiswal, deputy superintendent of police, CBI, Patna, has been appointed investigating officer of the case.

The Telegraph had highlighted the issue in its report published on December 16, 2017, under the header "CBI probe on Bihar 'varsity'". The Ara-based Council for Patent Medicine has been accused of illegally granting affiliation to several medical colleges to impart education in all three systems of medicine - allopathic, homoeopathic and unani/ayurvedic.

The high court had earlier ordered the Bihar government to submit a report. An IG-rank officer, Sunil Kumar Jha, (now additional director-general of police with the vigilance bureau) had submitted a 200-page report to the court, which felt the need of a CBI probe as the racket had its wide ramifications.

Nirbhay formed a Medical Council of Patent Medicines Society in 1990 and got it registered under the Societies Registration Act and also got recognition from the Bihar government. After registration, he opened medical colleges at Ara and Muzaffarpur in Bihar, Lucknow, Faridabad, Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh and at Bangalore in Karnataka.

Around 800 people were allegedly given degrees and diplomas from these institutions are practising across the country.

The matter came to the fore when individuals from Faridabad, who had been practising on the basis of the degrees awarded by a Haryana-based medical college that the Council for Patent Medicine had recognised, approached the high court seeking relief.

The Haryana government had stopped them from practising as doctors after which they moved the Patna High Court. The headquarters of the university that granted affiliation to the Haryana-based college was located in Ara, around 60km west of Patna.

The court took cognizance on the PIL against the fake medical colleges and distribution of fake degrees and found that these medical colleges were opened without permission from the Indian Medical Council (IMC) and Homeopathic Central Council (HCC).

Investigating officer Jaisawal said on Tuesday that the CBI acted on the orders of Patna High Court and added that several staff members of the medical colleges had been questioned.