Duo held for cheating film-maker sent to judicial custody

The two men accused of extorting money from film-maker Rakesh Roshan by posing as CBI officers were remanded in judicial custody by the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday. HT reports.

The two men accused of extorting money from film-maker Rakesh Roshan by posing as CBI officers were remanded in judicial custody by the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday.

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Acting on Roshan’s complaint, the duo — Ashwani Kumar Sharma and Rajesh Ranjan — were arrested on August 21. As the CBI moved court on Saturday seeking their custody in a fresh case registered against them by a businessman from south Mumbai, the duo accused the officers of stripping and beating them up in custody.

The court then ordered the accused to submit medical reports to prove the allegations.

On Wednesday, Sharma’s counsel Santosh Pandey submitted the medical reports in the court. “We have applied for bail. In our application, we have also requested that a first information report (FIR) be lodged against the CBI officials in question. The medical reports have proved that they were assaulted in custody,” said Pandey.

Special public prosecutor Ejaz Khan, however, refuted the allegations. “This is a ploy to avoid custodial interrogation. The accused were never beaten up by any officer. They are employing these tactics to stall the investigation,” argued Khan.

According to the CBI, Ranjan approached Roshan in June alleging that the agency had registered a case against him and could issue an arrest warrant soon. He introduced Sharma as a senior CBI official “who had the power to ensure that any case against Roshan is dropped provided he paid an amount running into lakhs of rupees.”

Fearing arrest, Roshan paid a huge undisclosed amount to Ranjan on June 13. But, finding their moves suspicious, Roshan later reported the case to the CBI on August 20.