4 CBI officers arrested, dismissed from service for staging raid on Chandigarh firm to extort money
- Country:
- India
In the swiftest action against erring personnel, the CBI has dismissed its four officers under a stringent constitutional provision and arrested them after they were allegedly found involved in staging a raid on a company in Chandigarh to extort money, officials said on Thursday.
The CBI received a complaint from a Chandigarh-based businessman, running an IT firm, that on May 10 six people, including four from the CBI, had entered his office and threatened him of arrest on the charges of supporting and providing money to terrorists.
''As part of its zero-tolerance policy towards corruption and other offences, not only in respect of those from outside but its own officials, the CBI, on receipt of the complaint, immediately registered a case, identified its other officials allegedly involved in the matter and effected their arrests. Taking a serious note of this act on part of these delinquent officials, all four of them were dismissed from service,'' CBI spokesperson R C Joshi said.
The incident took place at the office of the firm at Kishangarh IT park at 11 pm on May 10 when these officers on the pretext of a search told the businessman that they have interpol input that he was funding and providing support to terrorists and his firm was also involved in it.
They took him to a cabin where they allegedly demanded Rs 1 crore from him for letting him go, the complaint filed by businessman Abhishek Dogra said.
Dogra told the officers that he had started the firm just 20 days back and has no links with terrorists besides he does not have money demanded by them, it said.
When the businessman expressed inability to arrange such a huge amount, they allegedly assaulted him and threatened that he would be taken to CBI Delhi office.
The officers then entered in altercation over the money that could be demanded from him, the complaint alleged.
They dragged Dogra to basement parking, put him in his car and asked him to drive to CBI office in sector 30, Chandigarh, it alleged.
On the way they asked Dogra to drive to his home in Ludhiana and asked him to call his family and arrange Rs 25 lakh but his brother expressed inability to do that.
While returning, his car punctured when Dogra managed to sneak out and call his business partner who informed him that they are fake CBI officers, as per the complaint.
Dogra then sent him his location where his business partner along with some other employees arrived and a scuffle ensued, it alleged.
The businessman managed to escape from the officers towards a forest area where he was traced by his partner and others in unconscious state, it said.
CBI Director Subodh Kumar Jaiswal swung into action, looked into the matter and found prima facie involvement of his men in the embarrassing episode.
He immediately issued directions to dismiss the accused officers from service invoking Article 311 of the Constitution, the officials said.
Under Article 311, presidential pleasure stands withdrawn and a government official is dismissed from service.
The accused -- Sumit Gupta, Pradeep Rana, Ankur Kumar and Akash Ahlawat (all sub-inspectors at the CBI's Delhi-based units) -- were taken into custody by the agency on Wednesday night and Thursday after registering a case against them under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 388 (extortion by threat of accusation of an offence), under which the minimum sentence is 10-year imprisonment and the maximum is life imprisonment.
The dismissed officers were working in anti-corruption units, economic offence wing and Interpol protocol division of the CBI at Delhi, the officials said.
''We have never heard of such a swift action where officials of a police force have been dismissed within a couple of days of their illegal action coming to the fore,'' an official said.
The CBI conducted a search operation at the premises of the accused officers during which incriminating documents were recovered, Joshi said.
The four dismissed officers were produced before a special court by the Chandigarh branch of the CBI and were remanded to two-day custody of the agency, he said.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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