News Analysis India

Tag: Criminal Investigation Department

  • Bengal CID summons Assam businessman in Jharkhand MLAs’ cash seizure case

    By PTI

    GUWAHATI: West Bengal Police has summoned Assam-based businessman Ashok Kumar Dhanuka in connection with its investigation into the Jharkhand MLAs’ cash seizure case.

    According to sources, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal pasted a notice on the gate of Dhanuka’s residence here, asking him to appear before its investigators in Kolkata on Monday.

    The businessman could not be reached for comment as his mobile phones were switched off.

    Three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand – Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari – were arrested by West Bengal Police on July 31 after Rs 49 lakh in cash was seized from a car in which they were travelling.

    The West Bengal CID took over the investigation from the Howrah Rural Police.

    It is not immediately known when sleuths of the neighbouring state pasted the notice on the gate of Dhanuka’s residence.

    However, on August 3, a four-member team of the West Bengal CID had visited the BJP-ruled Assam as part of the investigation in the cash seizure case.

    The team wanted to collect CCTV footage of the Guwahati airport as it was alleged that the three Jharkhand MLAs had reached the Assam capital on July 29 and left the city the next day.

    The Congress, which is a part of the JMM-led government in Jharkhand, alleged that the BJP was trying to topple the Hemant Soren government by offering Rs 10 crore each and a ministerial berth to MLAs.

    The party has also dragged in the name of the Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in the alleged conspiracy, but these allegations were rubbished by the BJP, which claimed that the grand old party was trying to hide its own corruption after the cash was found.

    GUWAHATI: West Bengal Police has summoned Assam-based businessman Ashok Kumar Dhanuka in connection with its investigation into the Jharkhand MLAs’ cash seizure case.

    According to sources, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal pasted a notice on the gate of Dhanuka’s residence here, asking him to appear before its investigators in Kolkata on Monday.

    The businessman could not be reached for comment as his mobile phones were switched off.

    Three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand – Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari – were arrested by West Bengal Police on July 31 after Rs 49 lakh in cash was seized from a car in which they were travelling.

    The West Bengal CID took over the investigation from the Howrah Rural Police.

    It is not immediately known when sleuths of the neighbouring state pasted the notice on the gate of Dhanuka’s residence.

    However, on August 3, a four-member team of the West Bengal CID had visited the BJP-ruled Assam as part of the investigation in the cash seizure case.

    The team wanted to collect CCTV footage of the Guwahati airport as it was alleged that the three Jharkhand MLAs had reached the Assam capital on July 29 and left the city the next day.

    The Congress, which is a part of the JMM-led government in Jharkhand, alleged that the BJP was trying to topple the Hemant Soren government by offering Rs 10 crore each and a ministerial berth to MLAs.

    The party has also dragged in the name of the Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in the alleged conspiracy, but these allegations were rubbished by the BJP, which claimed that the grand old party was trying to hide its own corruption after the cash was found.

  • HC asks Maharashtra CID for report on progress in Govind Pansare killing probe

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to submit a report detailing the progress made from 2020 till date in its probe into the killing of activist Govind Pansare in 2015.

    A bench led by Justice Revati Mohite-Dere directed the CID to submit the report within four weeks.

    The CID last submitted a status report in the case in 2020.

    The HC’s direction came after Abhay Nevagi, the counsel for Pansare’s family members, told the court that the state police were yet to make any headway in the case even after seven years of the killing.

    The high court has been presiding over two petitions and several applications filed by the family members of Pansare and slain rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, seeking that the court monitor the probe into the two killings.

    While the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing Dabholkar’s murder, a special investigation team (SIT) of the Maharashtra police’s CID is conducting a probe into Pansare’s killing.

    On Thursday, the bench also permitted the state government to relieve Additional SP Tirupati Kakade, the current investigating officer (IO) in the Pansare case.

    Kakade is due for a transfer after heading the probe for over four-and-a-half years.

    Since, a previous direction of the Bombay High Court mandated that none of the officers probing the two cases be changed without the court’s permission, the state government approached the HC on Thursday.

    The bench led by Justice Mohite-Dere allowed the state’s request for “relieving” Kakade, saying a new IO must be appointed within four weeks and only then Kakade can take charge of his new posting.

    The state informed the court that there were 15 officers in the SIT probing the case, of whom two retired recently and one had died of COVID-19.

    Nevagi also filed an application, claiming the killings of Dabholkar, Pansare, and slain Kannada activist and academic MM Kalburgi were all “linked”.

    He sought a direction from the HC to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) to probe who was the mastermind behind the three killings.

    The high court is yet to pass any direction on the application.

    “Let them (state CID) first give the status report from 2020 to 2022 (in the Pansare case),” the HC said.

    Dhabolkar was shot dead on August 20, 2013 in Pune while he was on a morning walk.

    Pansare was shot at on February 16, 2015 in Kolhapur and succumbed to his injuries a few days later on February 20.

    Kalburgi was shot to death in Dharwad, Karnataka, on August 30, 2015.

    The agencies probing the three killings said in court on previous occasions that the cases had some common links and accused persons.

    The Bombay HC has been hearing petitions filed by the kin of Dhabolkar and Pansare, seeking that the court monitor the probe into both the cases.

  • CID records statements of two bookies over complaints against former Mumbai Commissioner Param Bir Singh

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Maharashtra on Wednesday recorded the statements of alleged cricket bookies Sonu Jalan and Ketan Tanna in connection with their extortion allegations against IPS officer Param Bir Singh, sources said.

    They have been called again on Friday.

    Jalan and Tanna appeared before the CID at its Belapur office in neighbouring Navi Mumbai and their statements were recorded for more than three hours, they said.

    Munir Khan, another alleged bookie and complainant, could not remain present due to health issues, sources said.

    The CID called Jalan and Tanna with evidence and documents again on Friday morning, they said.

    “Our statements were not completed today and we have been called again on Friday with more evidence,” Jalan told reporters while leaving.

    Param Bir Singh registered a fake case against him only to extort money, he alleged.

    Jalan and two others had written a letter to state Director General of Police Sanjay Pandey last month, accusing Singh, a former Mumbai police commissioner, of extortion.

    The complaints were handed over to the CID for investigation.