News Analysis India

Tag: CBI

  • Arms licence case: CBI searches 40 locations in Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI: The CBI on Saturday conducted searches at 40 locations in Jammu and Kashmir, and in the national capital in connection with cases related to alleged irregularities in the issuance of over 2.78 lakh arms licences to non-residents on forged documents during 2012-16, officials said.

    The search operation was spread across Jammu, Srinagar, Udhampur, Rajouri, Anantnag, Baramulla and Delhi at the official and residential premises of public servants, including IAS officers, around 20 gun houses among others in an ongoing investigation of a case related to arms licence racket, a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.

    Premises of two IAS officers — Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, posted as Secretary of Tribal Affairs in the Jammu and Kashmir government, and Niraj Kumar, Additional Resident Commissioner of UT in the national capital — were searched, the officials said.

    “With reference to media reports, I have to confirm that CBI did search my residence and found nothing incriminating in ongoing arms license probe. Media friends may note the probe covers 4 years across all districts. I am fully answerable to CBI for my tenure,” Choudhary tweeted.

    He said oversight or procedural indiscretion in a few cases cannot be completely ruled out as these pass through several clerical stages.

    “Of the 36,000 licences issued in Udhampur between 2012-16, only 1,500 odd (less than 4 per cent) issued under my tenure,” Choudhary said, adding that this number was the lowest among licences issued by all DMs.

    He said he has complied with agency queries, and was committed to do so in the future as well.

    He added that out of 4.49 lakh arms licences issued in Jammu and Kashmir during 2012-16, only 56,000 were issued in the three districts of Reasi, Kathua and Udhampur where he served as the DM.

    “This is not disproportionate.Of the 56,000 licences issued in three districts -Reasi, Kathua and Udhampur – between 2012-16, only 1,720 were issued in my tenure which is three per cent of all licences issued in three districts in four years or during the period under investigation and 0.

    38 per cent of all such licences issued in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

    The residence of retired officer of Kashmir Administrative Service, Shabir Ahmad Bhat, who has served as DM of Rajouri, was also searched, the officials said.

    Besides this, premises of six additional DMs who had served in Poonch, Kupwara, Bandipora, Baramulla and Ramban during 2012-16 were also searched by the CBI, they said.

    The agency had registered two separate FIRs into the alleged irregularities on October 16, 2018.

    The CBI had in December 2019 carried out searches at over a dozen locations in Srinagar, Jammu, Gurgaon and Noida on the premises of the then district collectors and magistrates of Kupwara, Baramulla, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Shopian, Rajouri, Doda, Pulwama, and several other places.

    The searches were carried out in connection with a probe into two cases pertaining to alleged issuance of around two lakh arms licences from different districts of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir by their collectors and magistrates.

    It was also alleged that the persons who got these licences were not residents of the places from where the said arms licenses were issued,” CBI spokesperson R C Joshi said in a statement.

    It is alleged in the FIR that then public servants in cahoots with other accused issued arms licences to non-residents of state in violation of rules and received illegal gratification.

    The CBI spokesperson said it is alleged that more than 2.

    78 lakh arms licences were issued to the non-entitled persons during 2012-16.

    “The CBI also collected documents pertaining to the issuance of said armed licences allegedly spread over 22 districts of J-K,” Joshi said.

    The Rajasthan ATS had unearthed the scandal in 2017 and had arrested over 50 people for their alleged involvement in the illegal issuance of arms licences.

    According to the ATS, over 3,000 permits were granted allegedly in the name of Army personnel.

    Based on ATS findings, then Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra had handed over the matter to the CBI.

  • INX Media case: Delhi court issues notice to ED on P Chidambaram’s plea 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A court in Delhi on Saturday sought the response of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on an application moved by former Union Minister P Chidambaram seeking various documents related to the INX Media money laundering case.

    Special Judge M K Nagpal issued notice to the ED and sought its response by August 9.

    The court was hearing an application moved by advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana on behalf of Chidambaram, seeking a direction to the ED to supply various documents along with the chargesheet filed in the case.

    It also sought that the ED rectify the discrepancies in the page numbering of the record and also supply missing documents.

    Chidambaram was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the INX Media corruption case on August 21, 2019. On October 16 that year, the ED arrested him in a related money-laundering case. Six days later, on October 22, the apex court granted bail to Chidambaram in the case lodged by the CBI.

    In the ED case, he got bail on December 4, 2019.

    The CBI had registered its case on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance granted to the INX Media group for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram’s tenure as finance minister.

    Subsequently, the ED had lodged the money-laundering case.

    The former Union Minister’s son Karti Chidambaram was arrested by CBI in February 2018 and he was granted bail in March 2018 in INX Media corruption case.

    He was granted interim bail from the Delhi high court in the money laundering case.

  • SC tells CBI to ensure no delay in filing appeals

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Taking note of the delay in filing appeal by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Supreme Court on Friday urged the premier investigating agency to set up a mechanism to ensure appeals are filed without delays.

    Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah, while dismissing the appeal on account of delay, asked the CBI director to ensure that steps are taken on the administrative side to monitor filing of appeals.

    “We are of the view that the CBI must take all necessary steps to ensure these kinds of delays do not occur in the future. Delays are liable to cause grave misgivings on reasons for delay. We direct director CBI to take necessary administrative steps to monitor filing of appeals on an ICT platform so that delays don’t take place,” the bench said.

    The court was hearing an appeal filed 647 days after the verdict given by a high court. In November 2018, a special CBI judge in Raipur had convicted an accused under Sections 120B, 467, 468 of the IPC and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and sentenced him to three years.

    The high court in June, 2019, reversed the judgment and acquitted the accused. The appeal against this was filed by CBI after 647 days.

    When CBI stated that delay was on account of Covid, the bench said, “When there has been an acquittal, we have to give due regard to the nature of explanation offered for the delay to ascertain whether a case for condonation is made out or not,” said the bench.

  • Suvendu Adhikari files petition before Calcutta HC seeking transfer of criminal cases to CBI

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Alleging that he is subjected to “political vendetta”, Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari has filed a petition before the Calcutta High Court seeking transfer of all criminal cases registered against him by the state police to the CBI.

    Adhikari also prayed for an order of quashing of FIRs registered against him by the state police.

    The BJP MLA filed the writ petition on Thursday seeking transfer of the criminal cases against him to the CBI for an “impartial investigation”.

    Alleging that he is being subjected to “political vendetta” since he is an opposition party leader and the cases were registered against him with “false claims”, Adhikari also sought an order of the high court directing quashing of the FIRs against him.

    The state police and its Criminal Investigation Department (CID) are probing a number of cases that relate to Adhikari.

    Amid the nationwide row over alleged snooping activities with Pegasus spyware, the BJP leader stoked a controversy when he said that he got access to call details of Purba Medinipur district SP Amarnath K, prompting the police on Tuesday to file suo motu cases against him.

    Adhikari, during a party meeting in the district’s Tamluk area on Monday, had also publicly advised the local police chief to “refrain from doing anything that might lead to his transfer to Kashmir”.

    The Nandigram MLA narrowly defeated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in assembly elections held earlier this year.

    The district police is also probing a case of alleged pilferage of relief material in Purba Medinipur.

    The state CID is investigating an unnatural death of a police constable, who was part of Adhikari’s security team three years ago when he was a minister in the previous TMC government.

    A case of murder was instituted recently on the basis of a complaint of the constable’s widow and the probe was handed over to the CID by the state.

  • CBI can inquire into transfer postings of police, reinstatement of Sachin Waze: Bombay HC 

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Thursday said the CBI can inquire into the transfer and postings of police personnel and the reinstatement of Sachin Waze in the police force, over its nexus with Maharashtra’s former home minister Anil Deshmukh and his associates.

    A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar dismissed a petition filed by the Maharashtra government seeking for two paragraphs from the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) FIR against Deshmukh to be set aside.

    While one paragraph is about allegations levelled against NCP leader Deshmukh by Sachin Waze, who has been dismissed from police service after his arrest in the Antilia bomb scare case, the second paragraph pertains to corruption in transfers and postings of police officials.

    “The investigating agency (CBI) in our view can legitimately carry on its inquiry into the transfer and postings of police personnel and the reinstatement of Sachin Waze in the police force after 15 years, so far as this has a nexus with the former home minister (Deshmukh) and his associates,” the court said.

    The CBI on April 21 this year registered an FIR against Deshmukh on alleged charges of corruption and misuse of official position.

    The FIR was lodged after the agency conducted a preliminary enquiry against the NCP leader following an order from the HC on April 5.

    Deshmukh had resigned as the state home minister after the HC directed the CBI to conduct a probe into the allegations of corruption and misconduct levelled against him.

    The NCP leader has denied any wrongdoing.

  • Bombay HC refuses to quash CBI FIR on corruption charges against Anil Deshmukh

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Thursday refused to quash the First Information Report (FIR) lodged by the CBI against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on charges of corruption and misconduct.

    A bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar said Deshmukh’s plea seeking quashing of the FIR “deserved to be dismissed”.

    The FIR was registered against Deshmukh and some unidentified persons on April 24 this year on charges of corruption and misconduct following a preliminary inquiry that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted in compliance with the high court’s order.

    The HC also refused Deshmukh’s request to stay its judgement to give him time to file an appeal against the same.

    ALSO READ | Money laundering probe: ED searches homes of ex-Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh

    The inquiry was initiated into the complaint lodged by lawyer Jaishri Patil, in the aftermath of allegations of corruption levelled against Deshmukh by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

    Deshmukh through senior advocate Amit Desai had sought that the FIR against him be quashed.

    The NCP leader had said the ongoing CBI inquiry against him was illegal, since the central agency had not taken prior sanction from the Maharashtra government to prosecute him.

    Additional Solicitor Generals Aman Lekhi and Anil Singh, who appeared for the CBI, had told the HC that no sanction was required, as by indulging in corruption and misconduct, Deshmukh hadn’t been discharging his official duties.

    The CBI’s FIR said Deshmukh had knowledge of the reinstatement of former assistant police inspector Sachin Waze, an accused in a case of bomb scare near the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, and the NCP leader used to exercise undue interference in transfers and postings of Maharashtra police officers.

  • CBI arrests Goa-based chef on charges of sexually abusing 25-30 children, selling videos

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The CBI has arrested a Goa-based man for allegedly sexually abusing 25-30 children and selling videos of his illicit acts to Indians and foreigners through the dark web and social media platforms, officials said on Tuesday.

    The accused, a 29-year-old chef in a hotel in Goa, was booked by the CBI on June 22, 2020 after the agency got leads about his activities during the probe against a Chitrakoot-based alleged paedophile who was an engineer in the Uttar Pradesh irrigation department, they said.

    In the past year, the CBI searched for the victims of the alleged paedophile, whose name is being withheld as the probe is at a sensitive stage.

    The agency managed to identify about 25 victims, in the age group of 12-21 years.

    Some of the victims were not willing to come forward because of social taboo associated with such matter, the agency said.

    The accused, a hotel management graduate, was presented before a court for cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in Goa which remanded him to judicial custody, CBI spokesperson R C Joshi said.

    “It was alleged that the accused was involved in sexual abuse of children. in Goa and Maharashtra and also recorded these acts by using his mobile phones, digital camera and other electronic devices, etc.,” Joshi said.

    He allegedly traded and shared these photographs and films containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) using the dark web with other Indians and foreigners, they said.

    “It was also alleged that the accused was using emails for connecting with other paedophiles outside the country; the internet to access cloud-based storage services for storing the illegal CSAM content; accessing free photo-sharing websites based in other countries and using other social networking websites and platforms i.

    e.

    Instagram, Whatsapp etc.

    for connecting to individuals abroad for sharing CSAM in huge quantities,” Joshi said.

    During searches, a mobile phone, hard drive, pen drive and laptop allegedly used by the accused to access CSAM were recovered, he said.

    In November last year, the CBI had arrested 50-year-old Ram Bhuwan for allegedly abusing around 50 children in the age group of 4-16 years in three adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh — Hamirpur, Banda and Chitrakoot — for over a decade and selling those recorded sexually explicit acts through the dark web.

  • UP Jal Nigam recruitment scam: CBI court summons ex-minister Azam Khan

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: A special CBI court here summoned former minister Mohammad Azam Khan on Friday, while taking cognizance of the offences mentioned in a chargesheet in connection with the recruitment scam in the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam during the previous Samajwadi Party (SP) government.

    Since Azam is in the Sitapur jail in another case, CBI judge Manoj Pandey directed the jail superintendent to ensure his appearance through video-conferencing on Monday (July 19).

    The court also issued summonses to the other accused in the case, including Girish Chandra Srivastava, Neeraj Malik, Vishwajeet Singh, Ajai Yadav, Santosh Rastogi and Kuldeep Negi.

    The special investigation team (SIT) formed to probe the case had filed the chargesheet after investigation following an FIR lodged at the SIT police station by inspector Atal Bihari on April 25, 2018.

    Khan was the urban development minister in the SP government headed by Akhilesh Yadav and it was alleged that norms were not followed in the recruitments in the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nijam.

  • Roshni scam: CBI searches premises of three IAS officers, others in Jammu, Srinagar

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The CBI on Friday conducted searches at nine locations in Srinagar and Jammu at the premises of three IAS officers, a politician and other officials in connection with the Roshni scam, officials said here.

    The searches were spread across the premises of former divisional commissioner, Kashmir Basharat Ahmad Dar (a 1989-batch IAS officer), Mehboob Iqbal (a 1990-batch IAS officer), (former??) Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar Ejaz Iqbal (a 1995-batch IAS officer) and politician Sajjad Parvez, they added.

    The case pertains to ownership rights given to alleged encroachers on government land, which is also known as the Roshni scam, the officials said.

    Premises linked to other officials, including former assistant commissioner, Nazool, Srinagar and former tehsildar, Nazool, Srinagar were also searched.

    “During the searches conducted so far, incriminating documents including conferment of ownership rights, documents pertaining to several immovable properties located at Srinagar, Jammu, New Delhi, fixed deposits of more than Rs 25 lakh, cash of Rs 2 lakh (approximately), keys of six bank lockers and a number of bank accounts have been unearthed,” CBI Spokesperson Joshi said.

    The central agency had taken over the investigation into the Roshni scam on the orders of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

    “It was alleged that the ownership rights of state land measuring around 7 Kanals 7 Marlas situated at a prime location in Srinagar were conferred arbitrarily on an ineligible applicant at a throwaway price, thereby causing a huge loss to the state exchequer. It was further alleged that the land category was also arbitrarily changed by the then public servants, who were members of the Price Fixation Committee (PFC),” Joshi said.

  • Narada accused could not be produced in court due to Mamata’s presence in office, CBI tells HC

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The CBI on Thursday claimed in the Calcutta High Court that it could not physically produce the four leaders who were arrested in the Narada sting tapes case before the designated court on May 17, owing to the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in its office and that of a large “unruly” crowd outside.

    The central agency, which has made a transfer application before the high court for shifting the Narada case to itself, also pointed to the presence of the state’s Law Minister Moloy Ghatak in the Bichar Bhavan premises, within which the CBI court is located, quoting media reports.

    It said in the counter-affidavit in reply to the affidavits in-opposition filed by the West Bengal government that state ministers Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee had to be produced before the designated court through the virtual mode due to the prevailing situation in and outside the CBI office, where the four accused were kept following their arrest on May 17.

    The CBI also termed as false the state government’s pleadings that the agency’s office and its officers were not under siege.

    In its affidavit, the CBI said some time after the four leaders were brought to its office at the Nizam Palace complex, the chief minister arrived there and demanded unconditional release of the arrested accused persons and dared its officials to arrest her as well.

    “The chief minister remained present in that chamber for nearly six hours and caused hindrance to CBI officers in discharging their duties,” it said.

    The CBI went on to add that “huge numbers of unruly mob gathered at the main gate of Nizam Palace, gheraoed the premises and started pelting stones”.

    The five-judge bench will hear the matter again on August 16.

    The bench had earlier allowed CBI to file affidavits in-reply after taking on record affidavits by the state government, Banerjee and Ghatak on a direction by the Supreme Court.