After failure to arrest MD of Bhushan Steel
CBI Director Ranjit Sinha has initiated an internal enquiry against his own officers for failing to arrest Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Bhushan Steel Neeraj Singhal during a raid at his bungalow here on Saturday in connection with the bribery case involving the chairman of the Syndicate Bank.
“I had given clear directions that (Neeraj) Singhal should be arrested. He was present at his residence when the CBI team had raided his house on Saturday. The team members searched his residence but did not arrest him. Now, he is evading arrest. It is a very serious matter and I have ordered an enquiry into why the arrest was not made despite orders,” CBI director Ranjit Sinha told reporters.
Despite clear instructions, the team returned from Singhal’s residence without arresting him after giving notice under section 160 of CrPC asking him to appear before the agency on Saturday, officials said.
Soon after the team left, Singhal allegedly escaped and has not been arrested till now despite repeated attempts by CBI. Singhal has filed an anticipatory bail application in a local court which will come up for hearing on Wednesday.
Agency officials said stern action will be taken if the anti-corruption officials who conducted the searches are found to have deliberately committed any omission or commission.
Bhushan Steel is one of the top five players in the steel industry in the country with a turnover of nearly Rs 10,000 crore. Bhushan Steel had allegedly used the services of middlemen and paid a bribe of Rs 50 lakh in cash to the now-suspended chairman-cum-managing director of Syndicate Bank SK Jain to extend the credit limit of the company. The agency had arrested Jain from a five star hotel in Mumbai and seven others from different places on Saturday on charges of taking a bribe of Rs 50 lakh to extend the credit limit of some defaulting companies including Bhushan Steel and Prakash Industries.
Both these companies are under scanner in the coal block allocations scandal.
Currently, Jain and seven others —Ved Prakash Agarwal, the head of Prakash Industries, Vipul Agarwal, Vijay Pahuja, Pawan Bansal, Pankaj Bansal and Jain’s relatives Vineet and Puneet Godha are in CBI’s custody while Singhal and other accused Purushottam Totlani, a middleman, are absconding.
Acting on a tip-off six months back, Jain was allegedly demanding bribes directly and through middlemen to extend the credit limits of several companies, the CBI’s anti-corruption wing had put him under surveillance.
The operation was monitored by CBI director himself. “Prakash Industries had earlier paid a bribe to Jain through the same set of middlemen but CBI was not able to lay a trap on that occasion. Bhushan Steel had taken a loan of Rs 100 crore from Syndicate Bank while Prakash Industries had taken a loan of Rs 120 crore. Both companies had defaulted in repayments,” alleged a CBI official.