CBI arrests SFIO deputy director, two others, in ₹1 crore bribery case

MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three persons, including an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer working as deputy director of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in an alleged ₹1 crore bribery case

MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three persons, including an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer working as deputy director of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in an alleged ₹1 crore bribery case.

The CBI acted after registering a case against Harish Kumar Tanwar, the accused IRS officer working as a deputy director with the SFIO, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Chennai, and a Delhi-based advocate, Bharat Sharma, along with others, on allegations that they had demanded undue advantage of ₹1 crore from the complainant for allegedly favouring him in an investigation being conducted by the SFIO related to the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) fraud. Tanwar, a 2017 batch IRS officer, was the investigating officer of the case.

After verification of the complaint and registration of the case, the CBI laid a trap and arrested Tanwar, Sharma and the latter’s relative Aryan Sharma. The arrests were effected after the advocate allegedly received an undue advantage of ₹20 lakh from the complainant, as part payment of the demanded bribe of ₹1 crore, for and on behalf of the SFIO officer, CBI officials said on Thursday.

During the course of the searches conducted at the premises of the SFIO officer and the advocate, incriminating material related to the case has been recovered, the officials said. The CBI continues to probe the case to ascertain if there were others involved in the irregularities.

The CBI on Tuesday registered a case against Tanwar, the lawyer and unknown public servants/others, based on a complaint from a businessman. The businessman had submitted a complaint to the CBI on Monday, alleging about Tanwar’s bribe demand and that he had been threatened of arrest and prosecution in connection with the SFIO’s investigation being conducted in the DHFL case.

The complainant’s allegations were verified in the presence of independent witnesses on Monday and Tuesday by the CBI. “The verification disclosed the demand of bribe by Tanwar and the advocate. The verification also disclosed that the complainant was directed by the advocate to deliver ₹20 lakh, as part of the bribe amount to him, for and on behalf of Tanwar,” a CBI official said. The three arrests happened on Wednesday. While Tanwar was arrested in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, the other two were nabbed in Delhi.

The CBI’s case was registered under sections pertaining to criminal conspiracy, public servant being bribed, taking advantage to influence public servant by corrupt or illegal means or by exercise of personal influence of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The DHFL had earlier come under the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s scanner in 2020, over a few allegedly suspicious transactions in 2018 of the former with a private bank, Yes Bank. The CBI had registered a case in this connection in March 2020.

Between April and June 2018, Yes Bank had invested ₹3,700 crore in short-term debentures of DHFL, according to the CBI. The bank subsequently also sanctioned a term loan of ₹750 crore to a DHFL group firm and in return, the then Yes Bank MD and CEO Rana Kapoor allegedly received a kick-back of ₹600 crore from the DHFL in the form of loans to his family firm, DOIT Urban Ventures (India) Private Limited.

The DHFL loan to DOIT was given allegedly on the basis of the latter’s mortgage of five properties with allegedly meagre value and by considering their conversion from agricultural to residential land, it was alleged.