CSI Medical College Bribery Case : Supreme Court Stays Money Laundering Trial Against Former Church Of South India Bishop

The Supreme Court today issued notice on the petition filed by former Church of South India (CSI) Bishop A Dharmaraj Rasalam seeking quashing of the money laundering case against him in the Karakonam CSI Medical College corruption case.

A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta made the notice returnable in four weeks and directed that trial court proceedings shall remain stayed in the meantime.

“Issue notice returnable in four weeks. In the meantime trial court proceedings shall remain stayed”, the court ordered.

During the hearing, Justice Nath asked, “Why should the Bishop do all these things?”

Senior Advocate Dr S Muralidhar for the petitioner submitted that “there is no case at all.” He said there were closure reports on each of the predicate offences.

He argued that proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act could not continue without predicate offences. He said there were five closure reports and added that the ECIR “strangely” annexed two of those closure reports.

The court then proceeded to issue notice and stay the trial.

Justice Nath said, “Don't do all this.” Justice Mehta then humorously responded, “But if they (litigants) don't do all this who will engage Supreme Court lawyers!”

The Kerala High Court on March 24 refused to quash the charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate against Rasalam in the alleged Karakonam CSI Medical College corruption case. Rasalam has been arrayed as the second accused by the ED, and the matter is before the Special Court dealing with PMLA cases.

The allegation is that in 2019, Rasalam and others collected over Rs. 7 crore from parents of aspiring students by offering admission to Karakonam CSI Medical College. Multiple complaints were filed by parents alleging that officers of the college collected large sums of money on the pretext of granting admission to MBBS and PG courses, but the admissions were not given.

The Crime Branch conducted investigation and filed a final report in 2021 before the magistrate's court stating the allegations are false and malicious.

However, the High Court dismissed Rasalam's petition seeking quashing of the chargesheet in the money laundering case, leading him to approach the Supreme Court.

Case no. – Diary No. 28457 / 2025

Case Title – A Dharmaraj Rasalam v. Assistant Director, Directorate of Enforcement