News Analysis India

Tag: CBI

  • CBI files chargesheet against UP junior engineer, wife in paedophilia case

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The CBI on Friday filed a chargesheet against a junior engineer in the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department and his wife for allegedly sexually abusing children and circulating explicit videos on the dark web to mint money, officials said.

    The agency also arrested a man from Delhi in connection with the case but is keeping his identity under wraps, they said.

    The accused were produced before a court in Banda.

    In its charge sheet filed before the special court, the CBI presented statements from about 20 victims and reports of digital evidence collected during searches at the residence of Ram Bhuwan, who is currently in judicial custody, the officials said.

  • Sex CD case: SC defers to March 5 hearing on plea seeking to transfer case against Chhattisgarh CM

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday deferred to March 5, the petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking its direction to transfer the case from Chhattisgarh to another state, involving Chief Minister, Bhupesh Baghel, who is allegedly involved in a sex CD controversy.

    A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan, deferred the hearing to March 5.

    The petitioner, the probe agency, had moved the top court seeking its direction to transfer the case out of Chhattisgarh.

    Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Baghel is allegedly involved in the illegal sex CD case. The top court also allowed the plea of the CBI to make Chhattisgarh one of the parties in the case.

    In this case, the CBI had already arrested one journalist for his alleged involvement into the case. 

  • CBI files two cases for alleged bank fraud of over Rs 220 crore

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The CBI has registered two separate cases pertaining to alleged bank fraud of over Rs 224 crore and carried out searches at eight locations in NCR and Gujarat, officials said Wednesday.

    The CBI booked Ahmedabad-based power line construction company Archon Engincon Ltd and its Directors for alleged fraud of over Rs 182 crore in the State Bank of India led consortium during 2014-17, they said.

    “It was alleged that during the period from 2014-15 to 2016-17, the accused entered into conspiracy and after availing the said limits, the accused diverted the sanctioned facilities by falsifying books of accounts and issuing bogus invoices and bills and thereby causing loss of Rs 182.37 crore (approx) to SBI,” CBI Spokesperson RC Joshi said.

    During the searches at Ahmedabad and Gurgaon, the CBI recovered Rs 42 lakh cash besides incriminating documents including foreign currency of various countries; details and keys of bank lockers; details of investment in securities, mutual funds and other investment, he said.

    The second case taken up by the CBI pertained to Delhi-based Goyal Engineering Polymers Pvt Ltd on a complaint from Indian Overseas Bank which was allegedly cheated to the tune of over Rs 42 crore, officials said.

    It was alleged that accused directors of the company had defrauded Indian Overseas Bank by giving improper information and falsification of documents, they said.

    “It was further alleged that the firm carried out substantial wrongful transactions with sister concerns/associates showing wrongful use of borrowed funds & diversion of funds to sister concerns, thereby causing loss of Rs 42.72 crore (approx) to the Bank,” Joshi said.

    Searches were conducted at the premises of the accused at three places in Delhi and incriminating documents were recovered, he said.

  • INX Media case: Court allows CBI to probe documents received from Switzerland

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A Delhi court Monday allowed the CBI to investigate certain documents received from the Switzerland authorities in execution of Letter Rogatory (LR) in relation to INX Media corruption case allegedly involving former Union Minister P Chidambaram.

    Special Judge M K Nagpal also permitted the agency to prepare a working copy of the data stored in the data carrier in encrypted form, so that it can be used for the day to day investigation of the case.

    “However, the working copy of the data be prepared after taking all the requisite precautions and all the requisite formalities as per law to ensure that the evidentiary value of the said evidence/documents may not be destroyed or diminished,” the court said.

    CBI told the court that during the course of investigation of the case, one LR to the competent authorities of Switzerland was issued by the court on July 13, 2018 on the request of CBI seeking mutual legal assistance in the matter of investigation in Switzerland.

    It added that the “LR stands already executed by the concerned authorities of Switzerland” and it furnished the “evidence/documents collected by them during the course of execution of the said LR” that also included a sealed packet containing an encrypted electronic data carrier.

    Letters Rogatory is a formal communication in writing sent by the Court in which action is pending to a foreign court requesting judicial assistance.

    The most common remedies sought by letters rogatory are service of process and taking of evidence.

    In August 2019, the CBI had arrested former finance minister P Chidambaram.

    Subsequently, it had filed a Chargesheet against him and 13 others.

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

  • Cattle smuggling case: CBI files charge sheet against BSF Commandant Satish Kumar, six others

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The CBI on Monday filed a charge sheet against BSF Commandant Satish Kumar and six others for their alleged involvement in a cattle smuggling racket operating at the India-Bangladesh border, officials said.

    The agency had taken over the case on September 21, 2020.

    The charge sheet has been filed against Kumar, the then Commandant of 36 Battalion BSF, Enamul Haque, Anarul Seikh, Golam Mustafa Taniya Sanyal, Badal Krishna Sanyal and Rashida Bibi, the officials said.

    In the charge sheet filed before a special court in West Bengal’s Asansol, the CBI alleged that Haque was the mastermind of the illegal cattle trade and was assisted by two other accused in connivance with Kumar who was deployed at Murshidabad and Maldah.

    “Evidence has been found during investigation regarding the alleged illegal cross-border selling of cattle, the related movement, delivery and use of ill-gotten money,” CBI spokesperson RC Joshi said.

    He alleged that three other accused assisted and showed fictitious business activities to regularise the ill-gotten money.

    “Searches were conducted at around 34 locations across the country at the premises of the accused. Then Commandant, BSF and a private person were arrested during the course of investigation,” Joshi said.

    “The said private person continues to be in judicial custody at the time of submission of the charge sheet,” he added.

  • Jharkhand: Family members refuse to accept Navy officer was killed for ransom, demands CBI inquiry

    Express News Service
    RANCHI: Family members of the 27-year-old Indian Navy sailor Suraj Kumar Dubey, who allegedly was abducted and charred to death at Palghar in Maharashtra when he refused to pay a ransom of Rs 10 lakh to the abductors, are not ready to believe the narrative and demanded CBI inquiry into the matter. 

    According to the officer’s elder brother Neeraj Kumar Dubey, if he had been kidnapped the perpetrators must have contacted any of his family members for the ransom money, but none of them received any phone call and any kind of communication in this regard. 

    “I have been told that my brother has been charred to death for a ransom of Rs 10 lakh which is completing misguiding as we did not receive any phone calls on any of our phones,” said Neeraj Kumar Dubey. 

    The narrative of kidnapping being presented to them could not be believed as he had no enmity with anybody, he added. “We demand a detailed inquiry by an independent agency like CBI into the case and status of a martyr to my brother,” said the elder brother. The chronology of incidents and the way he was been killed brutally, clearly indicates that Suraj was killed for an ulterior motive which might also have involvement of some other officers of his department, he added. 

    When asked why he thinks so, Dubey said that they have doubts on Dharmedra who also made a call on his father’s mobile and inquired whether Suraj left home to join the duty. “We doubt that a person who introduced himself as Dharmendra and inquired on my father’s phone asking whether Suraj left for Coimbatore or not within few minutes after he left home is involved in the killing,” Dubey said.

    ALSO READ | Navy official burned alive in Palghar for refusing to pay Rs 10 lakh ransom According to call detail record obtained by Maharashtra Police, Dharmendra was in regular contact with Suraj and had communicated 13 times through SMS on January 30, he added. Police said that while returning back to duty on January 30, three men allegedly abducted him at gun point outside Chennai Airport around 9 pm and demanded ransom of Rs 10 lakh. 

    He was detained at an undisclosed location in Chennai for three days. Later, he was brought to the forest in the western ghats of Vevji village in Talasari taluka near the Maharashtra-Gujarat border around 9 am on February 5, it said. Locals informed police after they spotted the naked man in the forest. The officer succumbed to his injuries on Saturday while being shifted to a Mumbai hospital for further treatment. 

    A case under Sections 302, 364, 392 and 34 has been registered against the three unidentified kidnappers at Gholwad police station in Palghar. Deceased Suraj, 24, who came on January 2 for engagement, had joined Navy in August 2012 and was posted at Coimbatore. Dubey, who hailed from Kolhua under Chainpur Police Station in Palamu, was posted with the Leadership Training Establishment at INS Agrani near Coimbatore. 

    According to his elder brother, Suraj left home on January 30 and took a bus for Ranchi from where he boarded a flight for Chennai via Hyderabad. After reaching Hyderabad, Suraj informed his mother saying that he will be taking a flight for Chennai and call again after reaching there. But, he never called back again. Both his numbers were found to be switched off on January 31.

    When the family members failed to reach to Suraj over phone, they informed the commanding officer of his unit in Coimbatore. Finally, they lodged a complaint at Chainpur Police Station in Palamu after he failed to report on duty on February 1 at Coimbatore.

  • Court accepts closure report in murder bid case against jailed gangster Chhota Rajan

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: A special CBI court here has accepted the closure report filed by the probe agency against jailed gangster Chhota Rajan in a case of attempt to murder of a noted journalist in 1997.

    In his order issued on Saturday, special judge A T Wankhede cleared Rajan of all the charges due to lack of sufficient material to proceed against him in the case.

    On June 12, 1997, Mumbai-based crime reporter Baljeet Shersingh Parmar was severely injured after some motorcycle-borne shooters of Rajan allegedly attacked him outside a building in Antop Hill area here.

    Initially, the city police registered a case under charges for attempt to murder.

    Later, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case.

    The CBI recently filed its closure report on the ground that during further probe into the case, no additional evidence emerged against the accused.

    The judge in his order said, “On perusal of the available material, there is only reference in the FIR against him (Rajan) that previously one Dalbeer Singh received threats from Rajan. Except this, there is no material to connect the accused in this crime.”

    The court further noted that CBI’s investigating officer did not find any link to connect the accused (Rajan) with guilt and was unable to collect vital evidences pertaining to the case.

    The court said it made an attempt to call the informant – Baljeet Shersingh Parmar, but he was not traceable on the given address.

    Accordingly, the CBI submitted the unserved report, the court said.

    “Even otherwise, there is no sufficient material to proceed against the accused,” the court noted while accepting the closure report.

    Rajan, facing multiple criminal cases, is currently lodged at the Tihar Jail in New Delhi after his deportation from Indonesia in October 2015.

    He is an accused in around 70 cases in Maharashtra, including the case of murder of journalist J Dey in 2011.

  • Pleas filed on behalf of non-existent persons at Allahabad HC, CBI starts probe

    By Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: The special crime branch unit of the CBI in Lucknow registered an FIR late on Thursday night in connection with 26 writ petitions filed on behalf of dead or non-existent persons in the Allahabad High Court.

    The FIR was lodged against RB Lal, J Nagar, Amit Negi, Gulab Chandra, and several other unidentified persons for criminal breach of trust, dishonesty, forgery for purpose of cheating. In June 2017, the Deputy Registrar of Allahabad HC, KK Yadav had filed a police complaint in this regard and an FIR was lodged therein.

    However, the initial probe by Prayagraj police had revealed that the writ petitions were filed in connection with the courses being run in a private agriculture deemed university and also the appointments made at several levels in the same institution.

    In the petitions, the litigants had expressed concerns over the courses allegedly being run in the university without the approval of technical education authority. However, the contents of all the petitions filed were similar. The case was then referred to the premier probe agency CBI by the state government on September 12, 2018.

    However, a notification for the CBI probe was issued by the Central department of personnel and training on December 31, 2020. Following the notification, the CBI began a preliminary inquiry into the case registered at Cantonment police station in Prayagraj, on June 16, 2017. After the probe of over a month, the probe agency registered a fresh FIR in the case on late Thursday night.

    As per the CBI sources, one of the accused RB Lal happened to be the Vice-Chancellor of the deemed university while others were his lawyers. The matter was referred to the CBI after a litigation committee was formed to look into fake writ petitions. The committee had inferred that 26 writ petitions were filed in the name of dead and fake persons.

    It had also surfaced that though three advocates had filed the petitions, only one could be traced, while two others did not exist. The probe agencies even failed to trace the addresses of the petitioners who had prayed for the same relief in the petitions.

    The CBI sources also claimed that significantly, as one of the petitions was junked, another was filed spending a huge amount of money in the process of this litigation.

  • CBI additional director Praveen Sinha takes over as acting chief of agency

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: CBI Additional Director Praveen Sinha on Thursday took charge as the acting chief of the agency after the superannuation of incumbent Rishi Kumar Shukla. A Gujarat-cadre IPS officer of 1988 batch, Sinha has served in the agency as superintendent of police, deputy inspector general, joint director and additional director in two stints between 2000 and 2021.

    Former CBI chief Rishi Kumar Shukla retired on Wednesday after a two year tenure in the agency. As the government is yet to name his successor, it handed over the acting charge to Sinha, who was the senior most officer in the agency after Shukla.

    The CBI director is selected by a committee comprising the prime minister, leader of the opposition in lok sabha and chief justice of India. Sinha who was tasked to revise the crime manual of the agency after 15 years has also served as the additional secretary in the anti-graft watchdog of the country, the Central Vigilance Commission during 2015-18.

    “He has served at various places in the state in various capacities from ASP to Additional DG. He has also worked as Deputy Director, ACB, Ahmedabad in 1996. Praveen Sinha has been associated with the investigation of various Supreme Court/High Courts entrusted/monitored scams; major bank frauds and financial crimes, serial bomb blasts etc,” CBI spokesperson RC Joshi said.

    Sinha was also instrumental in exposing CAT and AIPMT paper leakages. “He has the unique distinction of having drafted the manual of both the apex integrity institutions – Vigilance Manual 2017 of Central Vigilance Commission and CBI (Crime) Manual, 2020,” Joshi said.

    “He has been involved in several innovative and reform initiatives. Sinha is a member of several reform committees constituted by the CVC. He is also a member of the committee for reforms in criminal laws constituted by the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs),” Joshi said.

  • Praveen Sinha appointed as acting CBI chief, will succeed Rishi Kumar Shukla

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: CBI Additional Director Praveen Sinha, a 1988-batch Gujarat cadre IPS officer, has been appointed acting chief of the agency till a decision on a new director is taken to succeed Rishi Kumar Shukla who retired on Wednesday after a two-year fixed stint.

    The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose Sinha. An order issued by the Department of Personal and Training on Wednesday stated that Sinha will look duties of the director with immediate effect till the appointment of a new CBI chief or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

    Shukla, a 1983-batch IPS officer, completed his two-year stint in the agency which was marked by Indian victory in London courts allowing extradition of fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya and India clinching the hosting of General Assembly of Interpol in 2022, coinciding with the 75th year of Independence.

    The Madhya Pradesh cadre, soft spoken officer allowed anyone with a grievance in the agency to walk into his office on Fridays. During his tenure, the agency caught some notorious paedophiles in the country who were running international racket of producing and selling child sexual abuse material on dark web.

    The CBI director is chosen by a high-powered committee of the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and Chief Justice of India.