A Special CBI court on Monday sent an Undersecretary in the Union Home Ministry to five-day CBI custody. The official was arrested on Sunday from West Delhi in connection with a case alleging that he dishonestly issued FCRA notices to several NGOs for financial gains.
Special CBI judge Vinod Kumar sent him in custody till May 20 for further investigation with the probe agency. “I am of the opinion that for the purpose of thorough investigation, police remand of the accused is required. Accordingly, I remand the accused to police custody till May 20, on which date he will be produced in the court. The accused be got medically examined on last day of police remand,” said the court.
The CBI while asking for 5-days’ custody said files relating to several NGOs which were missing from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) have been found from his house and were not supposed to be taken by him.
Also, it said he was neither cooperating in the probe nor disclosing relevant facts and his custodial interrogation was required to find out how those files came to his house.
The CBI alleged in the court that Joshi had been issuing notices dishonestly to a large number of NGOs/ societies registered under the FCRA 2010, which have been receiving significant amount of foreign contributions, in an arbitrary manner.
It said some of these organisations are Care India, Snehalya Charitable Trust, Indian HIV/AIDS Alliance and All India Primary Teachers Federation and alleged that the representatives of some of these organisations were called and Joshi demanded and obtained illegal gratification.
It further said when the CBI team had gone to his house, he was not present there and even his mobile phone was switched off from May 11 to May 15 and he had left his house leaving a false letter behind.
The custody plea, however, was opposed by Joshi’s counsel who said his mobile was not switched off and he had lost his phone in Ujjain and in his 24 years long career he was not even issued an office memo. He also submitted that he is suffering from depression and therefore, necessary medicines may be provided to accused under doctor’s prescription.
The case was slapped against Joshi and some other unnamed persons for allegedly indulging in corrupt practices and arbitrarily issuing notices to several NGOs, registered under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), which were receiving foreign contributions, including activist Teesta Setalvad’s Sabrang Trust.