HC dismisses bail plea of clearing house agent in graft case involving senior DRI official

The Delhi High Court has dismissed the bail plea of a clearing house agent, who along with a senior DRI official was arrested by the CBI in connection with a Rs 3-crore bribery case, saying he was the "mastermind" of the crime.

Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar denied the relief to clearing house agent Anup Joshi saying the allegations against him are "grave and serious in nature" and he is not entitled to parity with his co-accused.

Joshi, Chander Shekhar, the then DRI Additional Director General (ADG), and businessman Rajesh Dhanda were arrested on January 1 by the CBI in connection with the case.

Shekhar and Dhanda have already been granted bail by a trial court and Joshi had submitted that he was also entitled for the relief on the ground of parity with the co-accused.

According to the CBI, the DRI had in June last year conducted a search at a private clearing agency which provides services to various exporters, and some documents pertaining to an exporter were also seized.

As per a complaint by an exporter to the CBI, Joshi and Dhanda, a close friend of Shekhar, allegedly demanded Rs 3 crore on behalf of the public servant for ensuring that the complainant businessman is not implicated by the DRI over documents recovered.

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

The high court, while denying bail to Joshi, said the investigation has revealed that he was the man who has created fear in the mind of complainant that he would be involved in cases with DRI and COFEPOSA.

After creating this terror in the complainant's mind, the bribe amount was settled of which Rs 25 lakhs have been recovered from Joshi, it said.

"It is the petitioner (Joshi) who was the ex-clearing agent of the complainant and he is the man who had made the complainant to believe that his firms would also be under the DRI investigation and laid the foundation of this entire case.

"He introduced the complainant with co-accused Rajesh Dhanda who then demanded Rs three crores as bribe," it noted.

The court said that during the investigation, the conversation between the complainant and Joshi has been collected which according to the prosecution revealed that he harassed and threatened the complainant to accede to their demand to save himself from the DRI investigation.

"The petitioner is the master mind of the case as he was well aware about the business of the complainant being his ex-clearing house agent," it said.