Bribery case: Alleged PMO official moved court for bail

A man, who had earlier falsely claimed to be an official of the Prime Minister's Office, today moved a Delhi court seeking bail in a bribery case involving suspended principal secretary in the Chhattisgarh government B L Agrawal.
In his plea before special judge Virender Kumar Goyal, the accused, Syed Burhanuddin, who is currently in judicial custody, claimed that the probe was already complete and there was no possibility that he would hamper it if the relief was granted.
The court put up the matter for arguments on the application for April 27, the next date of hearing. The court had on March 31 denied bail to Agrawal.

Last week, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against all the four accused persons -- Agrawal, his relative Anand Agrawal, alleged middleman Bhagwan Singh and Burhanuddin -- who are currently in judicial custody.
On the next date of hearing, the court will also consider whether to take cognisance of the charge sheet.
In it charge sheet, the agency has alleged that Agrawal, a 1988 batch IAS officer, wanted to "settle" an ongoing CBI probe against him.

According to CBI, the officer was facing investigation in two cases registered in 2010 when he was the Health Secretary in the Chhattisgarh government. He has been charge sheeted in one case, while the probe is going on in the other.

The agency has alleged that the officer had allegedly approached Bhagwan Singh, a resident of Noida, who took him to Burhanuddin to get a graft case "settled".
Burhanuddin, who has many aliases, claimed that he would help him settle the case in his favour. Burhanuddin aka OP Singh aka OP Sharma demanded Rs 1.5 crore as illegal gratification for his services, the CBI alleged.
At a meeting held between the trio on February 11, Agrawal agreed to pay the amount to get relief in the cases against him, it alleged, adding that Agrawal sent Rs 60 lakh in four instalments to Bhagwan Singh using hawala channel, it said.

He expressed inability to arrange cash for the remaining amount, following which Burhanuddin and Singh agreed to accept two kilogrammes of gold as illegal gratification, the agency alleged.
The agency has registered a case of criminal conspiracy and under Prevention of Corruption Act against Agrawal, Singh and others.