 "Home ministry officials among 14 arrested as CBI probes FCRA bribe case")
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested 14 persons, including six officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, in connection with Tuesday's raid at 40 places which led to the recovery of Rs 3.21 crore cash.
A senior CBI official said that several incriminating documents and mobile phones were recovered from them.
The CBI on Tuesday conducted searches at 40 locations in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Manipur.
After conducting the searches, the CBI lodged a case against 36 accused, including seven public servants of FCRA Division of MHA and NIC, on the allegation that some officials of the FCRA Division in conspiracy with promoters, representatives of different NGOs and middlemen were indulging in corrupt activities for getting backdoor FCRA registration and renewal for NGOs.
They had been doing this illegally with an object to continue receiving donations despite not fulfilling the prescribed norms. The public servants were indulging in the said practices and obtaining bribe from NGOs for facilitating them for their registration and renewal of registration under FCRA and for other FCRA related works.
During investigation, two accused were caught while delivering and accepting a bribe amount of Rs 4 lakh on behalf of a senior accountant of MHA. It was alleged that the delivery of bribe was done through a hawala operator.
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