CBI special judge V K Gupta on Saturday remanded the premier investigation agency’s disgraced SP Vivek Dutt -- the chief investigating officer in coalgate -- inspector Rajesh Karnatak and two others in three days CBI custody on graft charges. Dutt and Karnatak are said to have accepted a bribe of `7lakh to ‘settle’ a land dispute.
The duo’s arrest on Friday followed a trap set by the CBI’s anti-corruption wing. Besides, middleman Rajesh Pachisia and Dinesh Chand Gupta, a resident of Alwar in Rajasthan, were nabbed in the operation.Subsequent investigations by the CBI had led to the recovery of cash worth `24 lakh from Karnatak’s residence.
According to the CBI counsel’s submission,the probe agency’s anti-corruption wing had received a tip-off that Dutt, an SP attached to the Economic Offences Wing and Karnatak, also attached to the EOW would receive a hefty amount as bribe to ‘settle’ a land dispute here with the collusion of city-based middleman Pachisia.
Furthermore, it was revealed that a local resident Vikas Goyal had registered a case against Dinesh Chand Gupta for duping him of `1.94crore in a land deal at the Amar Colony here. And Gupta had approached Pachisia, who in turn sought the help of Dutt and Karnatak to settle the matter.
As per the CBI case, Dutt and Karnatak exerted undue influence on the Station House Officer of the Amar Colony police station.