A man who claimed to be an official of the Prime Minister's Office was today sent to five-day police custody by a special court in a bribery case involving Principal Secretary of Chhattisgarh Government B L Agrawal.
Special CBI judge Virender Kumar Goyal sent Syed Burhanuddin to CBI custody after the agency submitted that his custodial interrogation was required to unearth the larger conspiracy.
Burhanuddin aka OP Singh aka OP Sharma had allegedly demanded Rs 1.5 crore as illegal gratification from Agrawal, who is also in police custody in the same case along with others, for "settling" a case pending against the 1988 batch IAS officer, the CBI has alleged.
According to CBI, the officer is facing investigation in two cases registered in 2010, when he was Health Secretary in the Chhattisgarh government. He has been charge sheeted in one while the probe is going on in the other case.
The agency has alleged that the officer had approached Bhagwan Singh, a resident of Noida, who took him to Burhanuddin to get a graft case "settled".
Singh is also currently in the police custody in the same case along with the officer's relative, Anand Agarwal.
Burhanuddin claimed he was working in the PMO and would help him settle the case in his favour, the CBI FIR alleged, adding that Burhanuddin demanded Rs 1.5 crore as illegal gratification for his services.
At a meeting held between the trio on February 11, Agrawal agreed to pay the amount to get relief in the cases against him, it alleged, adding that Agrawal sent Rs 60 lakh in four installments to Bhagwan Singh using hawala channel.
As he expressed inability to arrange cash for the remaining payment, Burhanuddin and Singh agreed to accept two kilogrammes of gold as illegal gratification, the FIR alleged.
The agency has registered a case of criminal conspiracy and under Prevention of Corruption Act against the accused persons.
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