The CBI arrested Rakesh Kumar, the chief executive officer of the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC), on Monday night, for allegedly using an agent to demand a bribe of Rs 70,000 for issuing a censor clearance certificate to a regional language film from Chhattisgarh.
Four days after it trapped Shripath Mistra, an authorised agent for CBFC, while allegedly demanding a Rs 70,000 and Advisory Panel member Sarvesh Jaiswal for accepting subsequently accepting the bribe money behalf of the CEO of CBFC, the CBI took 45-year-old Kumar into custody Monday night.
Confirming the development, CBI spokesperson Kanchan Prasad said: “The CBI has arrested CBFC CEO Rakesh Kumar in an alleged bribery case a short while ago”.
Informed CBI sources in Mumbai said that Kumar, who had been booked in an alleged bribery case on Thursday last, was questioned by the CBI, before he was placed under a formal arrest.
“We have placed CBFC CEO under arrest at 8.15 pm and brought him to Tanna House. We arrested him after we found his involvement in bribes involving more such films. We will produce him in court tomorrow,” a senior CBI (Anti-Corruption Unit) official said here. A 1997-batch officer of the Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS), Kumar had assumed office as the CEO of CBFC in January this year.
According to sources, Kumar came under the CBI scanner last week after an authorised censor certification agent had approached the CBI with a complaint that another agent identified as Shripati Mishra had been demanding a bribe of Rs 70,000 for granting an urgent certificate to Chattisgarhi language film titled Mor Dauki Ke Bihav, scheduled for release on August 15.
Acting on the complaint, the CBI arrested Mishra and Sarvesh Jaiswal, for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 70,000 respectively, on behalf of Kumar on Thursday. The agency had also carried out at Kumar’s residence as part of the investigation. Kumar has had run-ins with several of the Bollywood personalities ever since he took over as the Censor board CEO. He had gone to town, saying that Bollywood film-makers were using expletives and sexual content extensively in their films.