News Analysis India

Tag: CBI

  • Unnao rape case: Delhi HC seeks CBI, victim’s response on Sengar’s bail plea

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Thursday sought response of the CBI and the victim on a plea by expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar seeking bail in a case in which he was sentenced to life term for raping a minor girl in UP’s Unnao in 2017.

    A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar issued notice to the CBI and the victim on the bail plea and listed the matter for further hearing on May 25.

    The court also sought response of the CBI and the victim on another application by Sengar in which he sought production of additional evidence in support of his appeal challenging the trial court’s verdict in the case.

    His counsel contended that an affidavit filed by the victim would show that she was not a minor at the time of the offence. He further sought bail in the case saying he has been incarcerated for last four years.

    Sengar’s appeal challenging the trial court’s verdict is already pending in the high court. He has sought quashing of the December 16, 2019 judgement of the trial court which convicted him.

    He has also sought setting aside of the December 20, 2019 order sentencing him to imprisonment till remainder of his life.

    The trial court had convicted Sengar under various provisions including section 376 (2) of IPC which deals with the offence of rape committed by a public servant who “takes advantage of his official position and commits rape on a woman in his custody as such public servant or in the custody of a public servant subordinate to him”.

    It had awarded him the maximum punishment of life term with a rider that the convict will remain in jail for “remainder of his natural biological life” and also imposed an exemplary fine of Rs 25 lakh on him.

    The woman was kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor. The trial, which started on August 5, 2019 after it was transferred from Unnao to Delhi on the Supreme Court’s directions, was carried on a day-to-day basis.

    The apex court, taking cognisance of the rape survivor’s letter written to the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, had on August 1, 2019 transferred all five cases registered in connection with the Unnao rape incident from a Lucknow court in Uttar Pradesh to the court in Delhi with directions to hold trial on a daily basis and completing it within 45 days.

  • BJP trying to influence CBI probe into Birbhum killings: TMC

    The BJP has forgotten the killings in Gujarat years back. It is now shedding crocodile tears for the Bogtui incident, in which prompt action has already been taken, claimed TMC spokesperson.

  • Chhattisgarh HC orders CBI probe in 2018 murder of family

    By PTI

    BILASPUR: The Chhattisgarh High Court has directed the CBI to probe the murder of a couple and their two minor sons that took place in the state’s Mahasamund district in 2018.

    Justice Goutam Bhaduri on Friday passed the order on a petition filed by a family member of the deceased persons, which claimed that the investigation carried out by the local police was “shoddy”, and directed to hand over the case to the CBI.

    The High Court held that, “perusal of the material seized along with the affidavit of the State (in the case) do not inspire confidence of fair investigation.”

    On the intervening night of May 30 and 31, 2018, health worker Yogmaya Sahu (30), her husband Chaitanya (31) and their sons Kunal (9) and Tanmay (7) were killed in a government quarter in Kishanpur village’s sub-health centre premises.

    The police arrested Dharmendra Bariha of the village in connection with the murder and later based on his narco analysis, four more accused – then sarpanch of Kishanpur Suresh Khunte, Phoolsingh Yadav, Gaurishankar Kewat and Akhandal Pradhan – were arrested in 2019.

    The five accused are in jail and the case is under trial in the district court. Dissatisfied with the police investigation, Chaitanya’s father Babulal Sahu had approached the High Court seeking to get the matter further investigated by other agencies, claiming that the police had failed to carry out a fair probe.

    As per the order, the petitioner’s counsel Raghvendra Pradhan submitted that “the house where the four murders took place was under the CCTV surveillance.” in the press conference (after the offence), the then Superintendent of Police came out with a statement that the digital video recording (DVR of the CCTV) has been seized, but the case diary or the final report is silent about such seizure”.

    Bariha was made an accused on the report of Suresh, who was subsequently found to be involved in the crime.

    The police were helping the accused, who were involved in the business of alcohol and drugs, for which a monthly payment was being made to the police, which was revealed in the narco test, the petitioner’s counsel argued.

    After hearing the arguments of both the parties, the High Court had reserved its order on March 14. In its order passed on Friday, the court noted that certain links were missing in the case and they were serious in nature.

    “Prima facie, perusal of the material seized along with the affidavit of the state do not inspire confidence of fair investigation, as such, I deem it proper to direct further investigation of the matter by the CBI,” Justice Bhaduri observed.

    The CBI will further investigate the case and proceed in accordance with the law within a period of four months from the date of receipt of a copy of the order, the court said.

  • Birbhum killings: CBI team reaches Bogtui village, starts probe

    By PTI

    RAMPURHAT: A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) reached Bogtui village in West Bengal’s Birbhum district on Saturday and started its investigation into the violence that claimed eight lives earlier this week.

    Unidentified people had on March 21 set 10 houses on fire in the village, killing at least eight people, including women and children.

    The CBI team, consisting of around 20 members, went inside the house where charred bodies of seven people were found.

    “We are starting the investigation today. We have to conduct the probe on a war-footing as we have a deadline to meet,” the CBI official told PTI.

    Sleuths of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CSFL), a unit of the CBI, also visited the gutted houses and started collecting samples.

    The Calcutta High Court on Friday handed over the investigation into the Birbhum killings to the CBI and set a deadline of April 7 to submit its progress report.

  • CBI takes over probe into Birbhum killings; Bengal politics heat up over the murders

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday took over the probe into the Birbhum killings hours after Calcutta High Court directed the central agency to replace the state investigation team formed by the West Bengal government to look into the gruesome mass murder.

    Earlier in the day, observing that the burning of eight people in Bogtui village in Bengal’s Birbhum district earlier this week has shaken the conscience of society, Calcutta High Court directed the CBI to take over the investigation and submit a report by the next date of hearing, which was set for April 7.

    The high court, which has been hearing a suo motu petition in the case since Wednesday, said that facts and circumstances demanded the investigation be handed over to CBI to instill confidence in society.

    The agency has already dispatched a team, along with eight experts from Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) who have visited the site of crime, officials said.

    Unknown assailants had thrown petrol bombs and set ablaze some 10 houses on fire in Bogtui village in the early hours of Tuesday, killing eight people including women and children, in a suspected fallout of the murder of a ruling Trinamool Congress deputy chief of the local panchayat.

    While opposition parties welcomed the high court order for CBI investigation into the violence alleging that the state police was trying to hush up the matter, the ruling TMC questioned whether CBI, which is under the union government, can be trusted to be impartial, claiming the BJP has been misusing central agencies.

    The Mamata Banerjee-led party however said all cooperation would be extended to the CBI but there would be mass movements if the saffron party uses it to harass TMC leaders.

    “We welcome the court’s decision. Only a CBI probe can bring out the truth as the police, acting as agents of the ruling party, were trying to suppress the matter,” state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar said.

    While senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said his party was hopeful that the CBI would carry out a fair probe.

    However, TMC state general secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the state government had so far done everything to unravel the truth and arrested a number of people and added, “We have seen how CBI has been used by the ruling dispensation to corner the opposition parties. So, we don’t feel that the CBI is an impartial agency.” For good measure, he added that if BJP tries to use the CBI investigation to “harass our leaders, there would be mass movements.” The High Court bench while passing the judgement ordering CBI to take over the probe had said that it found that though the SIT was constituted on March 22, “till now (March 25) there is no effective contribution of the SIT in the investigation”.

    The court, however, did not divulge details of the shortcomings in the SIT probe. Meanwhile, TMC leader and former Rampurhat block-1 president Anarul Hossain who was arrested Thursday in connection with the killings claimed that he had surrendered before police.

    “I surrendered before the police after ‘Didi’ (Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) instructed me to do so,” Hossein said while he was being taken to a court here, where he was remanded to 14 days police custody.

    Police had Friday arrested Hossein from outside a hotel in the pilgrimage town Tarapith by tracking down his mobile phone after failing to find him at either his home or office, hours after Banerjee had directed it to nab the TMC leader if he did not surrender before then.

    The state police on Friday also recovered a huge cache of arms and explosives from various parts of the state, a day after the chief minister ordered them to throw a dragnet and unearth all illicit arms caches.

    “We have recovered caches of illegal weapons from various districts of the state, including Birbhum, West Midnapore. The weapons have been seized, and the crude bombs have been defused by the CID and police bomb disposal squad. Several people have also been arrested,” a senior police official said.

    The official, however, said they are yet to compile the arrest figures across the state. Meanwhile, members of the state’s intelligentsia hit the streets of Kolkata in protest against Birbhum killings.

    Movie directors, academics, painters, students joined a rally sans political flags to walk through busy city thoroughfares to protest the burning of eight people in Bogtui village.

    “Our demand is that the perpetrators of the heinous crime are apprehended and brought to justice,” Academician Pabitra Sarkar said.

    While film director Kamaleswar Mukhopadhyay said that people should rise above political and personal interests and join the protests against the killings.

  • SC transfers investigation of all cases filed against Param Bir Singh to CBI

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme court on Thursday transferred all the pending cases against former Mumbai Commissioner Param Bir Singh to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The bench however refused to revoke his suspension.

    “This is not a reflection on the police of Maharashtra, which is respected, but a troubling scenario among the higher echelons…We are of the prime facie view that there is some concerted effort which needs the investigation by CBI. What is the truth, who is at fault, how does such a scenario come to prevail is something which investigation must get into. CBI must hold an impartial enquiry into all these aspects.” the court said..

    Such transfer is required to be done within a week, the court added.

    The Court has passed the order on the petition filed by suspended Senior IPS officer Param Bir Singh against a September 2020 judgement of the Maharashtra High court which had dismissed the petition filed by him challenging two preliminary inquiries started against Singh by the state government.

    He had also sought transfer of the probe regarding the same to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The top court had earlier directed the Maharashtra government to completely hold back the ongoing investigation against the former cop over the allegations of misconduct and corruption.

    (With inputs from agencies)

  • CBI lodged more than 2000 cases of corruption against over 3000 civil servants in 5 years

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Over two thousand cases of corruption were registered against more than three thousand civil servants in the last five years by the Central Bureau of Investigation, in pursuance of the government’s commitment to ‘zero tolerance’ against corruption and bribery practices in governance and administrative services.

    The charges against the civil servants named in the cases were generally of being directly or indirectly involved in corruption and gratifications.

    According to official information shared by the minister of state Dr. Jitendra Singh recently in the Rajya Sabha, 2,370 cases related to corruption and bribery were registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against 3,730 civil and public servants between 2017 and 2021 in the country. 632 cases were registered against 1142 civil and public servants in 2017 followed by 460 cases against 867 in 2018, 396 cases against 607 in 2019,425 cases against 565 civil servants in 2020, and 457 cases against 549 civil or public servants in 2021.

    Of the above, corruption cases or departmental inquiries are pending against only 27 senior civil servants, who are still in service, including 6 who are currently under suspension. Only 24 senior civil servants were arrested during the course of the investigation of the aforesaid corruption and bribery cases.

    According to official information, the Central Bureau of Investigation has filed charge sheets against 112 officers including 76 officers, who are still in service, during the period from January 1 in 2018 to October 2021.

  • CBI arrests senior GST intelligence officer for taking Rs 60 lakh bribe

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The CBI has arrested a senior intelligence officer, working in the office of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) in Ghaziabad, for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 60 lakh, officials said on Sunday.

    A businessman had complained to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) about an alleged demand of Rs 1 crore by the officer to show favour to his father in an ongoing case against him, they said.

    Following the complaint, the CBI registered a case against officer Mohit Dhankar for allegedly demanding the bribe, the officials said.

    “It was further alleged that the accused demanded bribe of Rs 1 crore through private persons/touts for showing official favour to the complainant’s father in a case at the DGGI, Ghaziabad,” CBI Spokesperson RC Joshi said.

    He said the agency laid a trap and caught a private person, Rakesh Sharma, accepting the bribe of Rs 60 lakh as first instalment on behalf of a public servant.

    Later, Dhankar was also caught, the officials said. “Searches are being conducted today at the premises of the accused,” Joshi said.

  • Co-location scam: CBI looks into Seychelles trip of Chitra Ramkrishna and Anand Subramanian

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Former NSE CEO Chitra Ramkrishna and Group Operating Officer Anand Subramanian’s trip to tax havens Seychelles has come under the scanner of the CBI, officials said on Friday, as the agency continues its probe against them in the co-location scam.

    The agency believes that it was not an innocuous leisure trip and that it needs a thorough investigation, they said.

    The CBI has also told the Special Court that Ramkrishna and Subramanian’s trip to Seychelles is being looked into.

    The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on February 11 had charged Ramkrishna and others with alleged governance lapses in the appointment of Subramanian as the chief strategic advisor and his re-designation as group operating officer and advisor to MD.

    In its report, the SEBI has also mentioned an email conversation of Ramkrishna with the “mysterious Yogi”, suspected to be Subramanian, mentioning about a trip to Seychelles.

    “Unknown person had written to Ramkrishna on February 17, 2015…keep bags ready, I am planning to travel to Seychelles next month, will try if you can come with me…,” it said.

    The agency, meanwhile, is focussing on retrieving the email exchanges between Ramkrishna and [email protected], they said.

    In its statement to Sebi, Ramkrishna had said that the unknown person having email id [email protected] was a ‘Sidha-purusha’ or ‘paramhansa’ who did not have a physical persona and could materialise at will.

    The CBI probe is understood to have indicated that Subramanian had created the email id to communicate with Ramkrishna as the Yogi.

    Most of these email exchanges were destroyed and the computer systems used to send these emails were scrapped after the exit of Ramkrishna in 2016, they said.

    The CBI is likely to approach Microsoft, the service provider, to know if these email exchanges can be retrieved to get a clearer picture, they said.

    The CBI, which was probing the co-location scam since 2018 against a Delhi-based stock broker, swung into action after a Sebi report showed alleged abuse of power by the then top brass of the NSE, the officials said.

    The officials said the investigation is going on in the alleged role of the then senior NSE officials who were looking into the co-location which is understood to have given “unfair advantage and wrongful gain” to certain stock brokers including OPG securities, an accused in the case, at the cost of others.

    The officials said the co-location facility in NSE was a “major policy decision” in which the then MD and CEO and other senior officials would have played a “decisive role”.

    The CBI probe has shown that Ramkrishna was appointed as Joint MD in 2009 and remained in the position till March 31, 2013, with the power of DMD.

    Ramkrishna got elevated as MD and CEO on April 1, 2013 and left the bourse in 2016.

    It was during this period that co-location was started by NSE, the CBI has alleged.

    In the co-location facility offered by NSE, brokers could place their servers within the stock exchange premises giving them faster access to the markets.

    It is alleged that some brokers in connivance with insiders abused the algorithm and the co-location facility to make windfall profits.

    The CBI has also found that Muralidharan Natarajan, the CTO of NSETECH (a subsidiary of NSE), who was responsible for setting up co-location architecture at the NSE was directly reporting to Ramkrishna, officials said.

    On February 25, the CBI had arrested former Subramanian after expanding its probe into the co-location scam in the exchange following “fresh facts” in the Sebi report that referred to a mysterious yogi guiding the actions of Ramkrishna.

    Subramanian was allegedly referred to as the “yogi” in the forensic audit but Sebi in its final report had rejected the claim.

    Ramkrishna, who succeeded former CEO Ravi Narain in 2013, had appointed Subramanian as her advisor who was later elevated as group operating officer (GOO) at a fat pay cheque of Rs 4.21 crore annually.

  • CBI arrests poacher for killing tiger, panther in Rajasthan’s Sariska

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The CBI has arrested an alleged poacher, who was absconding for nearly 14 years, in connection with the killing of a tiger and a panther in 2005 and 2003 respectively in Rajasthan’s Sariska, officials said on Friday.

    Balya Bawaria was nabbed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after a consistent chase since 2008 when he went absconding, they said.

    He has been sent to judicial custody, the officials said.

    His alleged accomplice was arrested in 2019 and convicted.

    The case was taken over by the CBI in 2005, they said.

    “The first case was registered on the allegations that in 2004, the accused killed a tigress (Bagin) in the forest of Kali ghati near ‘Kala Kund’ beat Ghanka, Sariska (Rajasthan) by using a ‘topisar’ gun and iron traps,” CBI Spokesperson RC Joshi said.

    “They took out the skin of the tigress and sold it for Rs 50,000,” he said.

    The second case was registered on the allegation that the accused in 2003 had killed a male panther at the “Kali Ka Dhaba, Jungle of Bighauta, Alwar (Rajasthan) by using fire arm, iron trap and its skin was sold for Rs 1,800”, the spokesperson said.