New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested its deputy superintendent of police (DSP), R K Rishi, inspector Kapil Dhankad and an advocate Manohar Malik in connection with its probe into a “bribes-for-relief” scandal in the agency, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday.
Rishi, who is accused of running a well-oiled racket in the central anti-corruption agency along with another DSP, R K Sangwan, Dhankad, a stenographer Sameer Kumar Singh and some lawyers for extending favours to private companies under investigation in bank fraud cases, was arrested on Tuesday night, the people cited above added.
The allegation is that crucial case related information and documents have been leaked since 2018 to individuals/companies being investigated for bank frauds.
Rishi’s home in Deoband (Uttar Pradesh) and his wife’s residence in Roorkee (Uttarakhand) were also searched by a team.
The agency claims to have already established that Rishi took ₹30 lakh bribe in two tranches for facilitating the leak of information from the agency and that Dhankad had taken around ₹25 lakh from two companies.
A case was registered last week naming four CBI officers , Rishi (deployed in CBI academy at Ghaziabad), Sangwan (DSP in Special Crimes Unit), Dhankad (Inspector in Bank Securities and Fraud Cell) and Singh (Stenographer in BS&FC); two lawyers , Manohar Malik and Arvind Kumar Gupta; and Mandeep Kaur Dhillon (additional director of a company, Shree Shyam Pulp & Board Mills Pvt Ltd) and Sujai Desai and Udai Desai of Mumbai based company Frost International Pvt Ltd, who alleged paid the bribes and sought information on the probes from CBI.
{{/usCountry}}A case was registered last week naming four CBI officers , Rishi (deployed in CBI academy at Ghaziabad), Sangwan (DSP in Special Crimes Unit), Dhankad (Inspector in Bank Securities and Fraud Cell) and Singh (Stenographer in BS&FC); two lawyers , Manohar Malik and Arvind Kumar Gupta; and Mandeep Kaur Dhillon (additional director of a company, Shree Shyam Pulp & Board Mills Pvt Ltd) and Sujai Desai and Udai Desai of Mumbai based company Frost International Pvt Ltd, who alleged paid the bribes and sought information on the probes from CBI.
{{/usCountry}}According to the CBI First Information Report, the four CBI officers, along with two advocates, and certain other accused have been “compromising the integrity of investigation of certain cases on extraneous pecuniary considerations”.
Both Shree Shyam Pulp & Board Mills Pvt Ltd (SSPBML) and Frost International are being investigated by the premier investigating agency for defrauding banks. The case against Frost International was registered in August 2020 for cheating 14 banks of over ₹3,500 crore.
CBI’s FIR states that “in the case of SSPNML, RK Sangwan, who was the previous investigating officer in the case, offered and paid a bribe of ₹10 lakh in cash on behalf of Mandeep Kaur to Inspector Kapil Dhankad”. “On his part, Dhankad conveyed confidential information relating to the investigation of this case to RK Sangwan, with an intention to favour the accused.”
It is further alleged that RK Rishi paid ₹10 lakh bribe to Dhankad on behalf of the Desais of Frost International.
For facilitating the bribe, Rishi received ₹15 lakh twice through advocates Malik and Gupta to extend favours to a Chandigarh based company against which a corruption case was being investigated by CBI, the FIR adds. “In this matter, Dhankad twice received ₹2.5 lakh from Gupta for having brokered the deal through Rishi,” read the CBI FIR.
Rishi, Dhankad and Malik were produced before a court on Wednesday.
The accused’s legal representatives could not be located for comment.