After a five-day chase, the CBI on Thursday nabbed the vice chairman of Bhushan Steel, Neeraj Singhal, from a five star hotel, a few hundred meters away from the agency headquarters.
Singhal is accused in a bribery case involving Syndicate Bank CMD SK Jain and was absconding after raids at his bungalow since Saturday. Jain has already been arrested.“Singhal was arrested from a five star hotel late in the afternoon. Our teams on the hunt in a number cities but we had no inkling that he was staying right under our nose,” said a source.
A local court had on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Singhal.On Tuesday CBI director Ranjit Sinha had ordered an internal inquiry against his own officers for failing to arrest Singhal during a raid on Saturday in connection with the bribery case.The agency has alleged that Bhushan executives used middlemen to pay a bribe of Rs50 lakh in cash to Syndicate Bank chief to extend the credit limit of the company that had defaulted on repayments of loans to the PSU bank.
On Saturday officers of the agency’s anti-corruption wing had raided Singhal’s bunglow but they allegedly relied on Singhal who assured the sleuths that he would appear for questioning the next day.Upset with his officers Ranjit Sinha orderd the internal inquiry saying he had given clear directions that Singhal should be arrested but the team ignored his express instructions despite his presence during the searches.
Bhushan is one of India’s five biggest steel companies with an annual turnover of about Rs10,000 crore. The agency had arrested Jain from a five star hotel in Mumbai and seven others including Ved Prakash Agarwal, the head of Prakash Industries, on Saturday. Jain is accused of taking bribes from other companies including Bhushan Steel and Prakash Industries to extend the credit limit. Both the companies are under scanner in the coal block allocations scandal.
“Besides, Bhushan Steel’s bribe of Rs50 lakh, Prakash Industries had given Rs3 crore bribe to Jain. Jain had received a large amount though Hawala route making the transactions difficult to track,” a source said.The agency has widened its probe and will now also look whether the appointment of Jain was dubious.