The CBI on Tuesday arrested two senior All India Services officers for corruption. Bl Agrawal, a Principal Secretary in the Chhattisgarh Government, was arrested for allegedly bribing people to help him wriggle out of corruption cases pending against him, while JP Singh, a former Joint Director of in Enforcement Directorate, was held for accepting illegal gratification to favour the accused in an IPl betting scam.
A senior IAS officer, Agrawal was arrested with his brother-in-law Anand Agrawal from Raipur, while an alleged middleman Bhagwan Singh was apprehended here, CBI sources said. They said the CBI had seized two kgs of gold and `39 lakh cash from the alleged middleman during search operations.
Allegedly Agrawal, an IAS officer of 1988 batch, wanted to "settle" CBI cases against him which were lodged in 2010 when he was the State's Health Secretary. He has been charge-sheeted in one case, while a probe is on in the other. Agrawal, in a desperate bid to save himself, was alleged to have approached Bhagwan Singh, a Noida resident, who took him to Syed Burhanuddin. Burhanuddin, who claimed to be working in the PM's Office, assured him help.
Burhanuddin aka OP Singh aka OP Sharma demanded `1.5 crore as illegal gratification for the services he promised to render, the CBI FIR has alleged. The trio met on Feb 11 this year and Agrawal agreed to make the payment. It is alleged that Agrawal sent `60 lakh in four instalments to Bhagwan Singh using hawala channels. However, later he expressed inability to arrange cash for paying the remainder after which Burhanuddin and Singh agreed to accept two kgs of gold as bribe, the FIR alleged.
Agrawal asked his brother-in-law Anand to deliver gold to Singh, the CBI FIR alleged. After registering a case under Section 120(b) of IPC relating to criminal conspiracy and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act against Agrawal, Singh and Burhanuddin, the CBI launched search operations in various places.