E-Paper
CBI arrests its DSP, inspector in bribery scam within agency
As part of the scandal, crucial case related information and documents were allegedly being leaked since 2018 to individuals/companies being investigated for bank frauds
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested its deputy superintendent of police (DSP) RK Rishi, Inspector Kapil Dhankad and advocate Manohar Malik in connection with its probe into “bribe-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 –stenographer Sameer Kumar Singh, and some lawyers for extending favours to private companies under investigation in bank fraud cases, was arrested on Tuesday night, officials cited above said.
Crucial case related information and documents were allegedly being leaked since 2018 to individuals/companies being investigated for bank frauds, they said.
Rishi’s home in Deoband (Uttar Pradesh) and his wife’s residence in Roorkee (Uttarakhand) was also searched by a team.
The agency has already established that Rishi had taken ₹30 lakh bribe in two tranches for facilitating the leak of information from the agency while Dhankad had taken around ₹25 lakh from two companies.
Also read | Rly officials bribery probe: CBI recovers ₹2 cr from South Delhi hotel
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 Bank Securities and Fraud Cell); lawyers Manohar Malik and Arvind Kumar Gupta; Mandeep Kaur Dhillon (additional director Shree Shyam Pulp & Board Mills Pvt Ltd) and Sujai Desai and Udai Desai of Mumbai-based company Frost International Pvt Ltd, who allegedly paid the bribes and sought inside information from CBI.
According to the CBI First Information Report (FIR), 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 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,” the FIR states.
It is further alleged that Rishi paid ₹10 lakh bribe to Dhankad on behalf of 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,” reads the CBI FIR.
Rishi, Dhankad and Malik were produced before a court on Wednesday. The accused persons’ legal representatives could not be located for comments.
