IAS officer in CBI net for striking 1.5 cr bribe deal to hush up corruption case

Correspondent

NewsBits.in

RAIPUR: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked a case against IAS officer BL Agrawal for allegedly paying a huge bribe to 'settle' a case of disproportionate assets against him.

Agarwal, a Chhattisgarh cadre officer, who is currently principal secretary, higher education, had an alleged deal with Bhagwan Singh and Burhanuddin alias OP Sharma. The latter introduced himself as an employee with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

All of them have been booked in the case. The deal of Rs 1.5 crore was made but CBI got whiff of it and conducted raids in Raipur, recovering Rs 20 lakh cash and 2 kg gold. Three middle-men Kanti Pugalia, Amit and Sanjay Tapadia have been named in the hawala channel.

Agarwal was booked for corruption in the year 2010. It was a case of accumulating assets disproportionate to known sources of income and alleged forgery in bank documents was detected. Agarwal was then suspended. Income Tax had also initiated action against him apart from Economic Offences Wing (EOW).

Over the years, his suspension was revoked. However, Agarwal was worried about the CBI probe. After the deal was finalised, the first instalment of Rs 45 lakh was to be sent through hawala channel. Out of it Rs 20 lakh was recovered in CBI raid. The second instalment was in the form of gold.

During the raids it was found that Agarwal has unaccounted property and hasn't given information about all his properties in the assets he has declared. The bungalow in which he currently lives has not been declared either.

CBI confirmed registration of the case against Agarwal. "A case has been registered against a principal secretary and other persons under sections of criminal conspiracy and prevention of corruption act", said a CBI spokesperosn.

"The case has been registered on the allegations related to payment of Rs. 1.5 Crore (approx.) by the public servant to private persons as gratification for help in a case against him, under investigation in CBI", it said.

"It was further alleged that an amount of Rs. 45 Lakh(approx.) was handed over by the said public servant to hawala dealer at Raipur since 11.02.2017 onwards which was to be delivered at Delhi to the private person (r/o Greater Noida) at Delhi, out of which Rs. 20 Lakh (approx.) has been delivered to said private person at Delhi", he added.

CBI said that during investigation, 2 Kg of gold was recovered. Searches were conducted at the premises of accused persons and Hawala operators at Raipur, Hyderabad & New Delhi/Greater Noida. An amount of Rs. 20 Lakh(approx.) earlier delivered to private person (r/o Greater Noida) at New Delhi, has also been recovered during searches.