NEW DELHI: The anti-graft central probe agency CBI has registered an FIR against the former Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary, Ramesh Abhishek, in a disproportionate assets (DA) case and conducted searches at his premises, officials said on Tuesday.
The Bihar cadre IAS officer of the 1982 batch, Ramesh, who retired from service in 2019 and later joined Paytm Payments Bank as Independent Director, the officials said, adding that the CBI has also named Abhishek’s daughter, Vaneesa, in the FIR.
According to the FIR, a copy of which is with this newspaper, the Lokpal had referred the DA case against Ramesh, and the CBI followed this up by registering a regular case under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The Lokpal in its reference to the CBI, which is part of the FIR, has asked the agency “to conduct an investigation into doubtful transactions entered into by Ramesh and his daughter Vaneesa by way of receiving big amounts as professional fee or consulting fee from various entities/organisations with whom Ramesh had official dealings while he was secretary DPIIT”.
In the FIR, it is also alleged that the father-daughter duo had invested the amount earned through consultancy in buying a property – E-72, Greater Kailash-II, New Delhi-, “which were the outcome of a doubtful sudden rise in investments of the family in immovable properties or a sudden increase in business income in a short period of time”.
Ponzi scam cases: CBI raids 2 places in Kolkata
The Central Bureau of Investigation has conducted searches at two premises in Kolkata — one belonging to Amal Bhattacharya and the other to his company Unix Infrastructure Pvt Ltd — in connection with a 2021 ponzi scam case, officials said on Tuesday. The CBI had filed a charge sheet against Bhattacharya and his company in December 2022, and kept its probe open to further investigate the larger conspiracy in the case, the officials said.