Mumbai: The CBI arrested two Indian Revenue Service officers—a joint commissioner and deputy commissioner at Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ)—and five others in a case where touts were collecting money on behalf of the officers and other public servants. In all, more than Rs 1 crore in cash was seized during the operation.
A special CBI court rejected the plea for their police custody and released all of them on bail after accepting the defence contention about an illegal arrest.
During a surprise check by the CBI on Tuesday, a collection agent, Manoj Joglekar, was found with Rs 60 lakh kept in envelopes bearing code names, purportedly of the officials receiving the bribes and the companies making the payments.
One of the arrested IRS officers, Chanderpal Singh Chauhan, was joint commissioner in SEEPZ and owned properties worth Rs 40 crore and several high-end cars and expensive watches, the remand application said. The other IRS officer was identified as deputy development commissioner, Prasad Varawantkar.
The remand application said Chauhan was getting an extension at the job by paying hefty bribes to higher-ups. SEEPZ is an electronics exports processing zone which provides incentives for exports through various facilitation measures.
Lawyer Rahul Agarwal, who represented Chauhan, said CBI officers detained him at 10 am on Dec 17 and produced him before the court at around 4 pm December 18, which implied that he was illegally detained beyond a period of 24 hours.
It was argued that CBI arrested the accused prior to the registration of the FIR and that the time of arrest was misrepresented and shown as 00:35am on Dec 18. The accused had to be produced before the court within 24 hours of his arrest for remand hearing. The defence lawyers argued that the accused were also not provided with the grounds of arrest when detained.
The CBI had received multiple complaints against Chauhan, regarding demands for bribes to process properties-business related NOCs at SEEPZ in Andheri, but individuals were reluctant to lodge formal complaints.
The CBI FIR said Chauhan along with other officers at SEEPZ and in connivance with private individuals were engaged in corrupt practices in the matter of space allotment, disposal of imported goods not used in manufacturing, sale of duty-free imported goods without paying duty, engagement of security persons and daily wagers, and favouring civil contractors in lieu of monetary consideration.”
The cash envelopes seized allegedly had code names for certain officers including Kanchi Gupta and Anil Chaudhary and upper division clerk Rajesh Kumar.
CBI also seized Rs 47 lakh from Rekha Nair, a SEEPZ employee, and arrested her. Besides the two IRS officers and the SEEPZ staffer, the others arrested are Manish Kumar, Ravindra Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar Meena and Rajesh Kumar.
Mumbai: The CBI arrested two Indian Revenue Service officers—a joint commissioner and deputy commissioner at Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ)—and five others in a case where touts were collecting money on behalf of the officers and other public servants. In all, more than Rs 1 crore in cash was seized during the operation.
A special CBI court rejected the plea for their police custody and released all of them on bail after accepting the defence contention about an illegal arrest.
During a surprise check by the CBI on Tuesday, a collection agent, Manoj Joglekar, was found with Rs 60 lakh kept in envelopes bearing code names, purportedly of the officials receiving the bribes and the companies making the payments.
One of the arrested IRS officers, Chanderpal Singh Chauhan, was joint commissioner in SEEPZ and owned properties worth Rs 40 crore and several high-end cars and expensive watches, the remand application said. The other IRS officer was identified as deputy development commissioner, Prasad Varawantkar.
The remand application said Chauhan was getting an extension at the job by paying hefty bribes to higher-ups. SEEPZ is an electronics exports processing zone which provides incentives for exports through various facilitation measures.
Lawyer Rahul Agarwal, who represented Chauhan, said CBI officers detained him at 10 am on Dec 17 and produced him before the court at around 4 pm December 18, which implied that he was illegally detained beyond a period of 24 hours.
It was argued that CBI arrested the accused prior to the registration of the FIR and that the time of arrest was misrepresented and shown as 00:35am on Dec 18. The accused had to be produced before the court within 24 hours of his arrest for remand hearing. The defence lawyers argued that the accused were also not provided with the grounds of arrest when detained.
The CBI had received multiple complaints against Chauhan, regarding demands for bribes to process properties-business related NOCs at SEEPZ in Andheri, but individuals were reluctant to lodge formal complaints.
The CBI FIR said Chauhan along with other officers at SEEPZ and in connivance with private individuals were engaged in corrupt practices in the matter of space allotment, disposal of imported goods not used in manufacturing, sale of duty-free imported goods without paying duty, engagement of security persons and daily wagers, and favouring civil contractors in lieu of monetary consideration.”
The cash envelopes seized allegedly had code names for certain officers including Kanchi Gupta and Anil Chaudhary and upper division clerk Rajesh Kumar.
CBI also seized Rs 47 lakh from Rekha Nair, a SEEPZ employee, and arrested her. Besides the two IRS officers and the SEEPZ staffer, the others arrested are Manish Kumar, Ravindra Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar Meena and Rajesh Kumar.
