News Analysis India

Tag: CBI

  • CBI raids magician PC Sorcar Junior’s residence in chit fund probe

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Officials from the economic offences wing of the CBI on Friday carried out a search operation at the residence of noted magician P C Sorcar Junior, sources said.

    The action was necessitated as some financial links allegedly between Sorcar and the now-defunct ponzi company Tower Group were unearthed, they said.

    The chit fund company is alleged to have transferred money to the bank account of Sorcar, who was the brand ambassador of Tower Group at one point of time, the CBI sources said.

    The search operation lasted for around two hours at his Mukundapur residence, the aim of which was to get hold of documents related to the association between the renowned magician and the firm, they added.

    Sorcar could not be contacted for comment.

  • CBI books six Indian Overseas Bank officials for misappropriating Rs 4.56 crore

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The CBI has booked six officials of the Indian Overseas Bank in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijaywada and Guntur for allegedly misappropriating Rs 4.56 crore from an account at the bank, officials said on Friday.

    The agency also carried out searches at various places located in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in connection with the case, they said.

    “It was alleged that the secretary, Arogya Bhadratha was maintaining savings accounts with Indian Overseas Bank, Mangalagiri Branch in Guntur district and having four deposits of Rs 90 lakh each and another account with deposit of Rs 68.84 lakh, totaling Rs 4.28 crore,” CBI spokesperson R C Joshi said.

    The accused officials closed these four accounts without any request from the account holder.

    “It was further alleged that the proceeds of the four deposit accounts amounting to Rs 3.87 crore and also Rs 68.84 lakh (approx) in another account in the name of the secretary, Arogya Bhadratha were withdrawn in cash partially on various dates and transferred to unrelated accounts after routing through various banks office accounts and third party accounts,” he said.

  • CBI conducts surprise checks at FCI godowns in Punjab, Haryana

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The CBI conducted surprise checks at 20 Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns in Punjab and Haryana on Friday after getting a number of complaints regarding alleged irregularities, officials said.

    The move is part of preventive vigilance to check corruption at locations where public dealing takes place, they added.

    The action started jointly with vigilance teams of the FCI at about 20 locations in the two states, the officials said.

  • CBI interrogates two Bengal cops in connection with cattle smuggling probe

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday interrogated two personnel of the West Bengal Police in connection with the probe into the cattle smuggling racket in the state.

    Anti-corruption branch officers of the central agency questioned inspector Saikat Rai and sub-inspector Biplab Karmakar in the cattle smuggling case, an official said.

    The CBI had on Wednesday interrogated the brother of Binay Mishra, a businessman allegedly involved in the racket and considered close to the Trinamool Congress.

    As part of its investigation in the cattle smuggling case in the state, the CBI had carried out searches at two premises of Mishra in Kolkata on December 31 last year.

    Mishra is absconding and the CBI had issued a lookout circular against him.

    The agency had in November last year arrested Enamul Haque, the alleged kingpin of the cattle smuggling racket running along the India-Bangladesh border in the state.

    It is alleged that cattle smugglers were bribing BSF and Customs officials to keep their illegal business running.

    The CBI had also arrested Satish Kumar, a former commandant of the 36 BSF Battalion, in the case.

    Haque was also arrested in March 2018 by the CBI for allegedly bribing another BSF Commandant, Jibu T Mathew, who was held at the Alappuzha railway station in January 2018 with Rs 47 lakh cash.

  • CBI registers case against Cambridge Analytica, Global Science Research for illegal data harvesting

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The CBI has booked UK-based Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research Ltd for illegally harvesting data of Facebook users in India for commercial purposes, officials said on Friday.

    The action came after a preliminary enquiry into the matter which showed that Global Science Research had created an app “thisisyourdigitallife” which was authorised by Facebook to collect specific datasets of its users for research and academic purposes in 2014, they said.

    The company then entered into a criminal conspiracy with Cambridge Analytica, allowing it to use the data harvested by it for commercial purposes, the officials said.

    Facebook had collected certificates from both the firms in 2016-17 that data collected by them using “thisisyourdigitallife” was accounted for and destroyed.

    However, the CBI enquiry did not find any evidence of any such destruction, according to the officials.

    “The enquiry prima facie established that Global Science Research Ltd, UK dishonestly and fraudulently accessed data of app users of “thisisyourdigitallife” and their Facebook friends,” an official said, citing the FIR.

  • CBI books former DC Pulwama Mehraj Ahmed Kakroo, others in Roshni scam

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The CBI has booked former Deputy Commissioner of Pulwama and 12 others in connection with conferring of land ownership rights under the Roshni Act in alleged violation of provisions, officials said.

    It is alleged that Kakapora-residents Ghulam Ahmed Pandith, Ghulam Nabi Naikoo, Mohammad Amin Pandith and Farhat Pandith, Abdul Majid Sheikh and Ghulam Rasool Wani had occupied six kanals, 10 marlas and four sirsai.

    This land was conferred to them under the Jammu and Kashmir State land (vesting of ownership) Act also called the Roshni Act by a committee comprising the then Deputy Commissioner Pulwama, Mehraj Ahmed Kakroo, Additional DC Iftikar ul Hasnain Bari and Assistant Commissioner Revenue Mohd Rajab Bhat.

    The committee had allegedly acted on a recommendation the then Tehsildar Pulwama Mohd Hussain Mir, Naib Tehsildar Kakpora Mohd Maqbool Ahanger, Girdawar Kakpora Ghulam Ahmad Sheikh and patwari Abdul Razak Wagay.

    The recommendation to handover the land was given despite the knowledge that a portion of the land was falling within 75/50 feet of the main road, which was not permissible for vesting of ownership rights, they said.

  • CBI arrests two more officials in Northeast Frontier Railway bribery case

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Widening the net in one of its biggest bribe-trap cases, the CBI has arrested two more senior officials of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), who were involved with Chief Administrative Officer (Construction) Mahender Singh Chauhan in allegedly seeking Rs one crore from a Guwahati-based firm for granting favours in awarding contracts to it, officials said on Monday.

    The agency is also tracking the “hawala” operator who had helped Pawan Baid, a director of accused company ABCI Infrastructures, to transfer the bribe amount of Rs one crore in cash to Delhi on January 16, from where Baid’s employee Bhupendra Rawat allegedly ferried it to Dehradun to deliver it to a relative of Chauhan on Sunday.

    The agency has arrested Deputy Chief Engineer Hem Chand Borah and Assistant Executive Engineer Laxmi Kant Verma — posted in Agartala — after it nabbed Chauhan on Sunday from Maligaon in Assam’s Guwahati, where the NFR head office is located.

    Besides Chauhan, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had already arrested his son-in-law Indra Singh and Rawat from Dehradun, where the bribe amount was allegedly being delivered, the officials said.

    Along with the five arrested accused, the CBI has booked the company and its director Baid for criminal conspiracy and bribery under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act, they said.

    All the accused were produced before competent courts in Uttarakhand, Tripura and Assam on Monday, the agency said.

    During searches, the CBI seized Rs 18.5 lakh and Rs 6.5 lakh in cash from the premises of Borah and Verma respectively, taking the total amount of cash seized so far in the case to Rs 2.39 crore, it said.

    “This includes an alleged bribe of Rs one crore which exchanged hands yesterday. (it) is stated to be one of the biggest bribe money trapped. In addition, Rs 60 lakh was recovered from Dehradun and Rs 54 lakh from Guwahati premises of CAO yesterday. Besides this, there has been recovery of jewellery and documents related to property from these locations,” CBI spokesperson R C Joshi said in a statement.

    The agency has conducted searches at 26 locations spread across the country, including in Delhi, Uttrakhand, Assam, Tripura and West Bengal.

    It is alleged that Chauhan (58) had demanded the bribe to show favours to Guwahati-based ABCI Infrastructures Private Limited in awarding contracts for various projects in the NFR, the officials said.

    “The contractors were allegedly being facilitated in awarding the contracts, processing of subsequent bills, release of payments etc. by the public functionaries in lieu of illegal gratifications,” Joshi said.

    The agency has alleged that Baid was in contact with Chauhan in connection with various ongoing projects in the Northeast Frontier region.

    “It was also alleged that on his demand, the said Director, through his employee, got delivered bribe of Rs one crore to the relative (private person) of said CAO at his residence in Dehradun,” the statement said.

    After getting inputs, the CBI laid a trap, deploying its teams at various locations in Uttarakhand and Assam.

    One of the teams swooped in on the accused after the bribe was delivered and the accused were taken into custody.

    After questioning and searches, the officer was also arrested.

  • Hearing deferred on bail plea of UP engineer’s wife held for alleged sexual exploitation of kids

    By PTI
    BANDA: A Banda court on Monday deferred the hearing on the bail plea of an engineer’s wife arrested by the CBI for allegedly exploiting children sexually and selling videos of the act to paedophiles across the globe on darknet for the last 10 years.

    The special court set up under the provisions of the Protection of the Children from Sexual Offences Act, deferred the hearing on the bail plea of engineer’s wife Durgawati to January 25 when the bail plea of her husband Rambhavan, arrested in the case, too is slated for the hearing.

    With the judicial remand of the couple lapsing on Monday, the court also extended their judicial custody by another 14 days till February 2, assistant government counsel Manoj Kumar Dixit said.

    On the CBI request, the court also added to the case sections related to the sexual offence under the POCSO Act, the counsel said.

    The Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department’s junior engineer was arrested on November 16 following which he was also suspended.

    The arrest was made by a dedicated unit of the CBI specialising in the probe into cases of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

    The arrested junior engineer, a resident of Chitrakoot district, is alleged to have victimised about 50 children in the age group of 5 to 16 years in Chitrakoot, Banda and Hamirpur districts.

    During searches, the CBI had recovered eight mobile phones, around Rs eight lakh cash, sex toys, laptops and other digital evidence carrying a huge amount of child sexual abuse material, agency officials had said earlier.

    The junior engineer had allegdly been indulging in the crime for the last 10 years, mainly contacting and sharing the sexual abuse material with other paedophiles globally using the darknet and cloud services abroad, they said.

    He is also alleged to have told investigators that he used to bribe children with mobile phones and other electronic gadgets to keep their mouth shut about his activities.

  • Central Information Commission asks CBI to cite rules under which LOCs were issued on Vijay Mallya

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission has directed the CBI to cite rules under which two different look out circulars were issued against Vijay Mallya, accused in loan default of Rs 9,000 crore, in October and November 2015.

    The CBI had issued a fresh LOC against Mallya in the last week of November, 2015 asking airport authorities across the country to “inform” it about Mallya’s movements, thus replacing its previous circular which had sought detention of the businessman if he attempted to leave the country, sources had said.

    Mallya left the country in March 2016 for the United Kingdom where he is legally contesting the extradition ordered by the British Government.

    Acting on a petition by Pune-based RTI activist Vihar Durve, who was denied information by the CBI, the panel directed the central agency to cite him regulations under which look out circulars (LOCs) were issued in October and November, 2015.

    The CBI had cited Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act to deny information to Durve. The section exempts from disclosure of information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders.

    The CBI had issued the first LOC against Mallya on October 12, 2015, when he was already abroad, calling for his detention if he intends to leave the country or arrive here from abroad.

    Upon his return, the agency was asked by the Bureau of Immigration if Mallya should be detained as sought in the LOC, to which the CBI said there was no need to arrest or detain him as he was a sitting MP and there was no warrant against him, according to sources.

    They said the agency only wanted information on his movements. Besides, the probe was in an initial stage and the CBI was collecting documents from the IDBI in the Rs 900 crore loan default case. Sources said that another case was filed against him later.

    Durve sought from the agency rules under which both the look out circulars were issued. He also had sought other details such as a copy of these circulars, all of which were denied by the CBI. In her order, Information Commissioner Saroj Punhani directed the agency to provide regulations under which both the LoCs were issued by the agency.

    She also directed it to provide a revised reply giving cogent reasons as to how Section 8(1)(h) is applicable in the case.

  • CBI arrests senior railways official in Rs 1-crore bribery case, conducts searches

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The CBI on Sunday arrested a senior Indian Railways Engineering Service (IRES) official for allegedly accepting bribe of Rs 1 crore and carried out searches at 20 locations across the country, officials said.

    The agency took Mahender Singh Chauhan, a 1985-batch IRES official, into custody when he was allegedly receiving the bribe to extend favours in granting contracts of projects of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), they said.

    They said that the official is posted at the NFR headquarters in Maligaon in Assam. The agency has recovered the bribe money, they said. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is carrying out searches at 20 locations in Delhi, Assam, Uttarakhand and two other states, they said.