Court sends IAS officer B L Agrawal to 5 days PC

A special court today sent Principal Secretary in Chhattisgarh Government B L Agrawal and two others to police custody for five days in connection with an alleged bribery case.
Besides Agrawal, special CBI judge Virender Kumar Goyal also sent alleged middleman Bhagwan Singh and officer's relative Anand Agarwal into CBI's custody, saying their custodial interrogation was required to unearth the larger conspiracy.
The court allowed CBI's application seeking five-day police remand.
It is alleged that Agrawal, a 1988 batch IAS officer, wanted to "settle" an ongoing CBI probe against him.
According to CBI, the officer is facing investigation in two cases registered in 2010, when he was Health Secretary in the Chhattisgarh government. He has been charge sheeted in one while the probe is going on in the other case.

The agency has alleged that the officer had allegedly approached Bhagwan Singh, a resident of Noida, who took him to one Syed Burhanuddin to get a graft case "settled".

Burhanuddin, who has many aliases, claimed that he was working in the Prime Minister's Office and 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 FIR 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 installments to Bhagwan Singh using hawala channel.

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