BSF commandant arrested by CBI slapped with fresh case

A former BSF commandant earlier posted at the Indo-Bangla border, who was caught with unexplained cash worth over Rs 45 lakh in January, has been booked by the CBI in a fresh case of amassing disproportionate assets, officials said today.

Jibu D Mathew, Commandant of the 83rd battalion posted at Murshidabad, has been booked in a fresh case of amassing assets to the tune of Rs 42.51 lakh for which he could not provide any satisfactory explanation, they said.

They said the alleged assets worth Rs 42.51 lakh are 130 per cent over his known sources of income between 2016 and 2018, they said.

Mathew was nabbed on January 30, 2018 when he had alighted Shalimar Express at Alappuzha, Kerala while coming from West Bengal.

A CBI team along with an independent witness trailed him in the AC-1 coach of the train from the Erankulam junction, they said.

The commandant was intercepted when he got down at Alappuzha, the sources said.

During his search in the presence of railway officials and the witness, the team found 18 bundles of currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination totalling Rs 34.44 lakh and 22 bundles of Rs 500 notes totalling around Rs 10.86 lakh concealed under clothes in a blue trolley bag, the CBI FIR had alleged.

On examining Mathew about the source of the cash, it was found he got the money from smugglers operating at the India-Bangladesh border as illegal gratification for favours he extended to them as the Commandant of the border guarding force, according to the FIR.

The CBI said it arrested Mathew on the basis of reasonable belief that he habitually accepted bribes by abusing his official position as a BSF Commandant for pecuniary gains.