MoEF's deputy director, two others sent to JC till Feb 1

Accused took bribe of Rs 7 lakh for arranging environmental clearance for a mining firm in Odisha

An environment ministry official, arrested by the CBI along with two others allegedly for taking a bribe of Rs 7 lakh for arranging environmental clearance for a mining firm in Odisha, was remanded to judicial custody today till February 1 by a Delhi court.    
Neeraj Kumar Khatri, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, arrested along with alleged middleman Chinmaya Sri Chandan and his father Achyutananda Sri Chandan was produced before Special CBI Judge V K Gupta along with the two after expiry of their CBI custody.

The three were sent to judicial custody as the agency said the probe into the case was still going on.

"All the accused are remanded to judicial custody up to February 1," the court said.    
Khatri and Chinmaya Sri Chandan were arrested on January 17 by the CBI in connection with the case while Achyutananda Sri Chandan was arrested later by the agency during the probe. The CBI had earlier said the custodial interrogation of Khatri and Chinmaya was required "to recover incriminating documents and to unfold the wider conspiracy and their nexus with other officials in the Ministry of Environment and Forest."

The CBI had said that it had searched Khatri's residential premises at Rohtak and Gurgaon and also his office here and recovered an amount of Rs one crore and several incriminating documents during the searches. Khatri was arrested while allegedly accepting the bribe from Chandan for arranging mining clearance for an Odisha based-firm of Chariot group, the CBI had said.

The accused have been booked under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC. The CBI had alleged that Chariot group wanted clearance for its Raiboga Mines at Birmitrapur in Sundargarh, Odisha. The company had allegedly hired S S Environics Pvt Ltd to get the clearance, it had said.