The Lokayukta police are seeking the extradition from New Zealand of a former government employee of Bangalore Medical College over a medical seat scam.
The case was registered in 1994 by the Lokayukta police and the accused, Mysore Rajarao Prakash alias M.R. Prakash faces charges of conspiracy, cheating and corruption in 26 cases. The case is under trial before the Lokayukta special court.
A senior Lokayukta police official said that Prakash was a second division assistant at BMC and also assisting in the selection scrutiny committee for MBBS seats. In the chargesheet, Lokayukta police stated that in all the 26 cases, registered in 1994, the accused Mr Prakash and others, were involved in malpractice at the time of admission to MBBS courses in various colleges in the state. Mr Prakash is chargesheeted in all the 26 cases and he is the main accused in manipulating the rank list.
“The case is under trial before the special Lokayukta court and there have been several efforts to get Mr Prakash back into the country. We have found that he got his passport after the case was registered against him and he flew to New Zealand in 2001. The city police commissioner had issued a lookout notice against the accused and efforts were made to get information about him from New Zealand,'' an official said.
After the Lokayukta court issued a non-bailable warrant against Mr Prakash, the police found that he owns a house in JP Nagar and gets rent every month.
The Lokayukta police have now decided to request through Interpol, the extradition of Mr Prakash though India does not have an extradition treaty with New Zealand. The police have found that Prakash's passport — A9362826 has expired, however he is now a citizen of New Zealand and hence, enjoys rights under that country's privacy act.
Mr Prakash lives in New Windsor, Auckland, New Zealand with his 2 sons. The police said that the Lokayukta police had been negligent in 1994, in not alerting city police about the case. With no information available about Mr Prakash's cases with city crime records bureau, his passport application sailed through, police said.