'Unique corruption in CBI, ED': Delhi HC sends CBI officials to custody

In an unusual development, the Delhi High Court has remanded three CBI officials to the custody their own probe agency in a corruption case and said it "shakes the edifice of the machinery" whose primary duty was to bring the culprits to book.

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, in an order on April 25, said, "It is one of the unique cases of rampant corruption in CBI, ED and such other departments, which shakes the entire edifice of our executive and the investigating machinery which have the primary duty of investigations in crime and bring the culprits to face the penalty corruption."  The complaint showed it was not a stand alone case of corruption by the government officials but reflected a "large conspiracy" amongst the officials of various departments who took bribes to give undue advantage or impact and interfere in investigations and the functioning of these departments.

"It is, therefore evident that in certain situations as in the present case which is to unearth the larger conspiracy, the custodial interrogation at the initial stage of investigation to unearth the material facts cannot be denied. Considering the gravity and the magnitude of the alleged conspiracy, two days police custody/remand of the three respondents is granted to CBI," the court said.

The order came on a CBI plea against a trial court order refusing custody of the three accused officials to the agency.

The complainant alleged the accused CBI officials demanded Rs 50 lakh as bribe from him to "settle" two cases involving him, which was subsequently reduced to Rs 35 lakh.

He further claimed another official in the Finance Ministry demanded illegal gratification of Rs 50,000 for influencing ED officers in another case.

While one of the CBI officials was caught red-handed accepting Rs 3.5 lakh bribe from the complainant on behalf of the other official, the ministry official allegedly accepted Rs 50,000 through GooglePay.

On April 10, the trial court remanded the accused persons to judicial custody and on April 15 denied the CBI's plea for their custody.

CBI sought a 10-day remand of the accused on the ground that the case related to senior CBI officials trying to manage the investigations of the agency and if the same was not thoroughly investigated, it would have far-reaching consequences.

The court order said investigation was still at infancy and to unearth the larger conspiracy, the interrogation of the three accused was imperative.

To say the interrogation intended to extract a confessional statement was not correct and those accused of grave offences could not be permitted to take the administration of justice for a ride, it added.