DRI official, two others sent to judicial custody till Jan 20 in bribery case

A CBI court on Wednesday sent a senior Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officer and two others to judicial custody till January 20 while rejecting the CBI demand of police remand of the accused persons in an alleged case of bribery.

Special CBI Judge Virender Bhat has sent the trio to judicial custody while dismissing the remand application of CBI. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had sought seven days remand of the accused for further interrogation and confrontation with the documents.

However, the court after finding no merit in the agency's arguments refused to send the accused to police remand.

The CBI had recently arrested an Additional Director General of DRI and two private persons, including a friend of the public servant, in an alleged bribery case of Rs 25 lakh.

The court observed that the matter is a trap case where private persons named Anoop Joshi and Rajesh Dhanda allegedly demanded bribe money from the complainant on behalf of Additional Director General Chander Shekharto settle his case lodged with DRI.

In furtherance to the said conspiracy, Joshi allegedly received bribe money of Rs 25 lakh from the complainant on December 31, 2019, in presence of Dhanda during trap laid by CBI.

Both were apprehended at the spot. Subsequently, Chander Shekhar was also arrested from his place of posting in Punjab's Ludhiana city. The bribe of Rs. 25 lakh has been recovered. Voice samples of Dhanda and Joshi have also been obtained.

It was alleged that in June 2019, DRI had conducted a search at a private clearing agency that provides services to various exporters. In this search, some documents pertaining to an exporter were seized.

The complainant, a resident of Delhi submitted a complaint to the CBI that a Clearing House Agent and a close friend of the ADG demanded Rs 3 crore on behalf of the public servant for ensuring that he would not be implicated.

The CBI then caught both the private persons while demanding and accepting Rs 25 lakh from the complainant.

During the investigation, the public servant was also arrested. Searches are being conducted at the premises including residence and office of arrested accused located at Delhi, Noida and Ludhiana.