THE CBI has arrested a 2012-batch IPS officer of Haryana cadre for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1 crore in connection with the Puducherry counterfeit medicine racket.
The development comes a month after the agency arrested two men, including a Delhi Police inspector, in connection with the racket.
The IPS officer, Deepak Gahlawat, allegedly told the prime accused in the case, N Raja alias Valliappan alias Rajasekhar, that he could “arrange” relief in the CBI case through his “connections” within the agency.
Gahlawat allegedly demanded Rs 3 crore from Raja in the Rs 5,000-crore counterfeit medicine racket in Puducherry. He had allegedly already taken Rs 1 crore from Raja, the source said.
A Delhi court on Wednesday asked the CBI why it didn’t question Gahlawat about the “role of CBI officers” in the alleged Rs 3 crore bribery case.
“Are you trying to mislead the court? Of course you are. Why didn’t you ask him? He’s joined investigation four times. He has been with you for 24 hours… Is there any explanation why you didn’t ask about who (which CBI officers) had to be influenced,” Special Judge Sushant Changotra of Rouse Avenue Court asked the CBI’s IO during a hearing on Gahlawat’s remand.
“The answer to queries posed to the IO today makes it apparent that till date no effort has been made in the investigation as to whether any public servant who was posted in CBI was ever approached by accused Deepak Gahlawat or if he had made any attempt to exercise his personal influence over such public servants. The IO made no endeavour to ascertain as to whether such a person existed or the identity of this public servant. The conduct of the IO in this respect and the responses given by him today are totally unfathomable,” he said.
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Gahlawat, who was present in the courtroom, denied the charge. “From May to June, I never called any of my acquaintances in CBI. Not a single call… There is not a single penny recovered from my account,” he said. The court granted the CBI one-day custodial interrogation of Gahlawat.
Gahlawat is currently serving as a Regional Director with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
According to a source, after identifying Gahlawat and informing his department, the CBI summoned him and questioned him multiple times. “We have now arrested him and are still probing the role of his internal contacts in the Central agency,” the source said.
“During investigation, it was disclosed that the IPS officer had demanded illegal gratification, claiming that he could exercise his personal influence and obtain relief for private persons in the cases being investigated by CBI in relation to the sale of counterfeit drugs in Puducherry,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
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“Earlier, the CBI had arrested the accused Delhi Police Inspector along with six other private persons, which led to the recovery of approximately Rs 25 lakh of trap amount and Rs 90 lakh, along with other incriminating documents seized during the investigation,” the spokesperson said.
On June 8, the CBI registered an FIR against Raja; Pradeep Kumar Singh, an inspector with the Delhi Police Crime Branch’s Southern Range and Rajkumar alias Madhanraj, who is alleged to have acted as an intermediary. The FIR also named unknown public servants and private individuals.
“Raja had arranged a payment of Rs 1 crore through a hawala transaction. The arrested inspector received the payment through a hawala operator and gave it to one Prabhat, who was an acquaintance of an IPS officer. Singh kept the remaining Rs 25 lakh in his house and CBI arrested Singh and Rajkumar with the balance amount of Rs 24.70 lakh,” CBI said.
The counterfeit and spurious medicines manufacturing operation was uncovered following raids by the police and the CB-CID in Puducherry last year, during which massive stocks of fake drugs and raw materials were seized. Raja was arrested in December.
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The Puducherry Police later found that several politicians were involved, and the investigation was transferred to the CBI. The agency officially registered a fresh case against Raja in March this year.
