New Delhi, Apr 29: The Delhi High Court has remanded three CBI officials to the custody of their own agency in a corruption case, observing that the situation shakes the edifice of the machinery whose primary duty is to bring wrongdoers to justice.
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said that , it is one of the unique cases of rampant corruption in CBI, ED and such other departments, which shakes the entire edifice of our executive and the investigating machinery which have the primary duty of investigations in crime and bring the culprits to face the penalty corruption.
The court noted that the complainant has pointed out that this is not an isolated incident of corruption by a government official. Instead, it points to a larger conspiracy involving officials across multiple departments, who have in a nexus and take bribes for giving undue advantage to the approaching party or even to impact and interfere in the fair investigations and the functioning of these government departments.
It is therefore evident that in certain situations, as in the present case, which is to unearth the larger conspiracy, the custodial interrogation at the initial stage of investigation to unearth the material facts cannot be denied.
Court added that considering the gravity and the magnitude of the alleged conspiracy, two days police custody/remand of the three respondents is granted to CBI.
The court’s direction came on the CBI’s plea against a trial court order refusing custody of the three accused officials to the agency.
The complainant in the case alleged, the accused CBI officials initially demanded a bribe of Rs 50 lakh to settle two cases against him, later reducing the demand to Rs 35 lakh.
Additionally, a Finance Ministry official allegedly sought Rs 50,000 to influence Enforcement Directorate officers in another matter related to him.
An FIR was registered on the complainant’s complaint on April 9, 2024. Pursuant to which, a trap was laid by the police, during which one of the CBI officials was caught red-handed accepting Rs 3.5 lakh bribe from the complainant and on behalf of the second accused CBI official, the ministry official allegedly accepted Rs 50,000 through GooglePay.
On April 10, the trial court remanded the accused persons in judicial custody and on April 15 denied the CBI’s plea for their custody. The CBI sought a 10-day remand of the accused on the ground that the case related to senior CBI officials trying to manage the investigations of the agency and if the same was not thoroughly investigated, it would have far-reaching consequences.
While granting CBI custody, the court said investigation was still at infancy and to unearth the larger conspiracy, the interrogation of the three accused was imperative.
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