CHANDIGARH: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested a Haryana cadre IPS officer for allegedly accepting a bribe in connection with the Puducherry counterfeit medicine racket case.
According to sources, the officer, Deepak Gahlawat, is presently posted as a Regional Director with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
"The CBI had registered a case on June 8 against an Inspector in Delhi Police and two other private persons. During the investigation, it was disclosed that the said IPS Officer had demanded illegal gratification claiming that he could exercise his personal influence and obtain relief for private persons in the cases being investigated by CBI in relation to sale of counterfeit drugs in Puducherry," the CBI said in a statement.
"Earlier, the CBI had arrested the accused Delhi Police Inspector along with six other private persons which led to the recovery of approximately Rs 25 lakhs of trap amount and Rs 90 lakhs, along with other incriminating documents seized during the investigation,’’ it read.
It further added that searches have been conducted at multiple premises linked to the IPS Officer and multiple digital devices, hard disks, documents etc... have been seized.
The investigation in the case is underway.
According to sources, the officer had allegedly accepted a bribe from the main accused in the Puducherry counterfeit medicine racket case, N Raja, after convincing him that he could "arrange" relief through his "connections" within the CBI.
Sources said that the involvement of Gahlawat was revealed during the questioning of the accused in the case, including N Raja alias Valliappan alias Rajasekha.
On June 8, the CBI had registered an FIR against Raja, Delhi police officer Pradeep Kumar Singh and Rajkumar alias Madhanraj, who is alleged to have acted as an intermediary. The FIR also named unknown public servants and private individuals.
"Raja had arranged a payment of Rs 1 crore through a hawala transaction. The arrested inspector received the payment through a hawala operator and gave it to one Prabhat, who was an acquaintance of an IPS officer. Pradeep Kumar Singh kept the remaining Rs 25 lakh in his house and CBI arrested Singh and Rajkumar with the balance amount of Rs 24.70 lakh, ‘’ the CBI said, adding the amount was the first instalment of a larger payoff.
Sources claimed that as per the FIR, Raja and Rajkumar met Singh at New Delhi's Aerocity on May 14. Singh allegedly escorted them to the office of an unidentified senior public servant located in the vicinity. The officer, suspected to be Gahlawat, assured Raja help to be relieved from the case.
According to the FIR, Raja had on May 16 disclosed to his wife that the public servant had agreed to help in return for Rs 3 crore and had sought an advance of Rs 1.5 crore.