Delhi SDM arrested for graft, sent to jail

A sub-divisional magistrate arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on the charge of demanding Rs 50,000 from two private builders was sent to 14-day judicial custody on Friday by a local court here.

The CBI arrested senior Delhi government official Rahul Aggarwal, who was posted as the sub-divisional magistrate of Saraswati Vihar, on Thursday night along with "three private persons in the bribery case".

CBI sources said that one of the three persons has been identified as Sandeep -- known by his first name -- who has been working for Aggarwal as a middleman. "The other two private persons are Brijendra Yadav and his son Ashwani Yadav."

The accused persons were on Friday presented before the Rohini court which sent them to 14-day judicial custody, the sources said.

The investigators found that Aggarwal, a DANICS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Services) officer of 2012 batch, was indulging in issuing notices to various banquet halls, owners of private buildings and other persons allegedly found to be encroaching government land or doing illegal construction.

"Aggarwal used to threaten the concerned parties during their visit to his office and allegedly sent a tout to collect illegal gratification from the them as negotiated, " said a CBI official.

"It was alleged that the SDM had demanded bribe from Brijendra and Ashwani to allow them to construct shops in Delhi's Naharpur village which falls under his jurisdiction. He directed the middleman Sandeep to collect the bribe from them," said the official.

After registering the case, the CBI laid a trap and caught Sandeep while accepting an illegal gratification of Rs 50,000 from Brijendra and Ashwani.

"Sandeep revealed that the bribe money was meant for the SDM. The CBI conducted raids at the resident of the SDM in Delhi and recovered Rs 5 lakh in cash along with some incriminating documents."

"The raiding team also recovered certain official files and Rs 1.5 lakh from Sandeep's home," an official source said.

--IANS

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