CBI raids Chief Controller’s house, seizes Rs 5.86 lakh cash, documents

 

 

 

 

 

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted searches at the house of P Kumar, Chief Controller of Explosives, Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation (PESO), and recovered unaccounted Rs 5.86 lakh cash, following the arrest of two high-ranking officials from the PESO on the charges of accepting bribes. The total cash seized in the license bribery case has been around Rs 2.23 crore, so far. According to CBI officials, a team of CBI has expanded its scrutiny in the case as it suspects involvement of additional senior officials in the corrupt practices. As a part of investigation, the CBI team conducted a raid on P Kumar’s rented house in Hajaripahad area and recovered the cash, along with incriminating documents.

 

Three properties of P Kumar, a Joint Secretary rank official, have been identified by the CBI which include a flat at Panvel, near Mumbai; another flat at Vaishali in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, and one more flat at Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. Following seizure of the cash, P Kumar faced questioning from the CBI officials for hours at the CBI office. The team is scanning the documents recovered from the house of P Kumar for further investigation, said CBI officials. The searches stem from the arrest of Ashok Kumar Dalela and Vivek Kumar, both Deputy Chief Controllers of Explosives at PESO. They were arrested on Thursday in connection with the alleged bribe acceptance facilitated by Priyadarshan Dinkar Deshpande, a private person, acting on the behalf of these PESO officials. Devi Singh Kachhawaha, the Director of M/s Super Shivshakti Chemical Pvt Ltd., in Rajasthan, was the entity offering the bribes, said CBI officials. The officials claimed that Dalela and P Kumar were operating a corruption racket with the tacit approval of some senior officials within PESO.

 

The CBI is anticipated to interrogate more senior officials soon. The CBI received substantial information about malpractices within PESO which led to the seizure of Rs 10 lakh cash during the trap. Deshpande, acting as an intermediary, conspired with PESO officials to expedite the approval of an application submitted by Kacchawaha, allegedly in exchange for bribes. The firm sought to maximise its electronic detonator manufacturing capacity up to 75 per cent by March 2024, and the accused PESO officers purportedly facilitated this by expediting the pending work for the company through Kachhawaha.

 

 

 

 

DA case against P Kumar in 2005 A case of Disproportionate Assets (DA) was registered against P Kumar by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Ghaziabad in 2005. However, the agency did not acquire sufficient evidence against P Kumar, said CBI.

 

Deshpande gifts Rs 22 lakh gold Priydarshan Deshpande, a resident of Lake View Apartment, Hingna T-point, had allegedly gifted 350 grams gold jewellery valued at Rs 22 lakh to a senior PESO official during last Diwali. The CBI officials collected purchase documents from the jeweller and now, searching for the gold item that was received by a top ranked PESO official, said CBI.