DRI ADG, 2 others sent to judicial custody in Rs 3-cr bribery case

A senior Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) official and two alleged middlemen were sent to judicial custody till January 6 in a Rs 3 crore bribery case by a court here on Thursday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested Additional Director General, DRI, Ludhiana, Chander Shekhar, and two others -- Anup Joshi and Rajesh Dhanda -- in the case on Wednesday.

They were produced at the residence of Special Judge Kiran Bansal.

The CBI had sought seven days police custody of the accused, but the judge sent them to judicial custody till January 6.

Advocate Sanjay Abott, representing Shekhar, said no ground for police custody was made out.

In a complaint, it was alleged that in June 2019, the DRI had conducted a search at a private clearing agency, which provided services to various exporters, a CBI spokesperson had said here on Wednesday, adding that some documents pertaining to an exporter were also seized.

The complainant also alleged that Joshi, a clearing house agent, and Rajesh Dhanda, a close friend of Shekhar, had demanded Rs 3 crore on behalf of the public servant for ensuring that he is not implicated by the DRI over the documents recovered, officials had said..

The CBI arrested Joshi and Dhanda while allegedly receiving Rs 25 lakh as first installment of the bribe demanded by them on behalf of the officer, they had said.

During questioning, the middlemen told the sleuths that the bribe was allegedly for the officer, the officials had said.

They had said searches were being conducted in Delhi, Noida and Ludhiana.