The CBI has appointed Vidhi Kumar Birdhi, a 2003 batch IPS officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre, to investigate the case of irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks. The agency had removed Superintendent of Police Vivek Dutt from the case following his arrest in a bribery case last Friday.
The CBI has not made any significant recovery from Vivek Dutt, whom the anti-corruption unit of the agency arrested on charges over bribery allegations for settling a land dispute.
CBI sources said that its anti-corruption unit had recovered `92,000 from his office in the CBI headquarters and ` 35,000 cash from his residence. But sources say that the CBI has evidence in the form of telephone conversations which show his involvement in settling the land dispute.
CBI officials said that Dutt was in a meeting with the Joint Director when the alleged bribe was given to CBI inspector Rajesh Karnatak outside the CBI headquarters in Delhi.
It is alleged that Karnatak was Dutt’s accomplice in settling the land deal. On May 17, businessman Dinesh Gupta and middleman Rajesh Paschia telephoned Dutt to inform that they were coming to deliver money, but Dutt could not pick up the call since he was in a meeting.
But Karnatak, came out of the CBI headquarters and collected money. It was then that the CBI anti-corruption team trapped him. In lieu of settling a case, Dutt demanded an illegal gratification of ` 15 lakh from a man.