Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Friday came down heavily on the Crime Branch in connection with the Karakonam medical college scam. The court observed that the probe team didn’t investigate on the involvement of Dr. Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College in Karakonam Director Bennett Abraham and CSI Moderator Bishop A. Dharmmaraj Rasalam in connection with the allegations that they cheated several people and collected huge sums by offering admission at the medical college for MBBS and MD seats.

HC asked Crime Branch not to protect the accused and submit the probe progress report within 10 days.

Parents of some students had approached the HC demanding a CBI probe following which it a Crime Branch probe was ordered. The accused, who are the college authorities, took huge amounts from them promising admissions and cheated. When the college authorities failed to give admissions, the petitioners demanded the money back. However, the money was not returned, the petitioners had said.

Huge sums, some even as high as ₹60 lakh, were found to have been collected in a probe conducted by the Admission and Supervisory Committee for Medical Education in Kerala. The panel had observed that the college administration had collected money from the aspirants, mostly from Tamil Nadu, despite being aware of the fact that non-Keralites were ineligible for admission to MBBS, BDS and MD courses in Kerala.

On Friday, the court was considering the bail applications of the accused. HC further observed that though a case was registered, the probe was not fruitful.