KOCHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will conduct an inquiry into the sources of the wealth amassed by the three Labour Department officials who were booked the other day for accepting bribe.
Earlier, the CBI received the accused, including the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner, in custody for two days.
The arrested, Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner A K Pratap, Assistant Chief Labour Commissioner-Kochi D S Jhadav, Labour Enforcement Officer C P Sunil and P K Aneesh Kumar, HR manager in a construction firm, were produced before the CBI Court on Saturday. Considering a petition filed by the agency, the accused were sent to CBI custody until Monday evening.
A preliminary inquiry revealed that the accused had amassed wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income, and that they allegedly owned properties in Pune, Visakhapatnam, Mumbai and Panvel. “We have launched an inquiry into the wealth amassed by the accused persons. If the wealth in their possession is illegally-acquired, separate cases would be registered against them,” said CBI officials.
It was on Wednesday that the CBI arrested the Labour Department officials for allegedly demanding and accepting bribe from the HR Manager of KK Builders. The CBI in its report submitted that Deputy Commissioner A K Pratap demanded bribe from KK Builders, which has been engaged in construction activities for the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Kozhikode, in December last year.
They were caught red-handed by CBI officials while accepting bribe.