Raipur: Six persons, including three experts associated with the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), have been arrested by CBI in a bribery case.

The trio-- Sanjay Soni, Manoj Kumar Kushwaha and Rajesh Kumar Singh, who were on an AICTE experts panel, have been charged with entering into a conspiracy with private educational institutions for giving a favourable report to them in return for money, a CBI spokesperson said.
Ravinder Vishwakarma, Sandeep Khullar and Sushil Chandrakar who represent different educational institutions have also been arrested for giving bribe to them, he said. The arrested accused were produced yesterday in the Court of Special Judge for CBI cases, Raipur and were remanded to Police custody till May 11, 2012. Further investigation of the case is on, he said.
Soni is Associate Professor (Applied Mechanics) at Bhopal`s Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Kushwaha an Associate Professor of the same subject at SVS College of Engineering & Technology, Ferozepur (Punjab) while Singh is Deputy Director (Architecture), Military Engineering Services, Delhi.
Vishwakarma and Khullar are representatives of Sri Sai Shanti Shikshan Samity, Bhilai, while Chandrakar is from Bharti College of Engineering & Technology, Durg (Chhattisgarh).
"It was alleged that an expert committee of Central Region of AICTE, Bhopal were camping in a hotel at Durg for the purpose of conducting annual inspection of private educational (technical) institutions in Chhattisgarh.
"They entered into a criminal conspiracy with the owners or representatives of the educational institutions and had allegedly received or were to receive illegal gratification from such private persons for giving favourable report," he said. Following information, a trap was laid by CBI when the representatives or officials of two educational institutions delivered bribe amount to AICTE experts in the hotel.
"During search of the said room, a cash of Rs 11.71 lakh and 12 gold coins weighing 100 grams (8x10gms + 4x5gms) were recovered and seized from their possession. The three experts of AICTE and three bribe givers representing the educational institutions were arrested," it said.
Searches were also conducted at the residential premises of accused persons of AICTE at Bhopal, Meerut and Firozpur.
"During the search of the residences of the accused at Bhopal, Rs 10 lakh cash; 27 sale deeds or power of attorney in respect of the property; 42 pass books of bank & post offices and three keys appearing to be of bank lockers were recovered," the release said.
PTI