New Delhi, Feb 21: In a first, the CBI on Monday conducted searches at the residence of its former chief Amar Pratap Singh after registering a case against him for allegedly favouring controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi.
The CBI conducted searches in the premises of the four accused persons in four cities--New Delhi, Ghaziabad, Chennai and Hyderabad. Besides Singh’s residence, the other premises searched included those of Sharma, Qureshi’s company and that of Pradeep Koneru in Hyderabad. Koneru is also being probed by the CBI in connection with the disproportionate assets case against YSR Congress leader Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The four accused persons have been booked under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
“Qureshi was obtaining money from various persons for getting favours from public servants. The RC will probe the nexus between Qureshi and the public servants including Singh,” a CBI official said, adding the FIR was registered on a complaint from the Enforcement Directorate.
Singh, a 1974-batch IPS officer, headed the agency between November 30, 2010 and November 30, 2012 during which a number of high profile cases like the 2G scam and coal scam were being probed.
The CBI has based its RC on the complaint forwarded by the Director, ED Karnal Singh, who alleged that in the course of investigation in a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) case against AMQ Group of companies owned by Qureshi, it transpired that the businessman was acting as a middleman for some public servants.
In his letter, the ED chief attached records of Blackberry chat messages exchanged between Singh and Qureshi to allege that cognizable offences were committed by the two in collusion with each other.
ED Assistant Director Arun Kumar, whose complaint was also attached with Singh's letter, alleged that Qureshi took "huge money" from different persons for obtaining undue favours from public servants and politicians holding high offices.
The ED has appended 22 BBM messages which were exchanged between Singh and Qureshi even after the retirement of the former CBI Director. In its complaint to the CBI, the ED has also attached 18 BBM messages allegedly exchanged between Moin and Raghini Brar, daughter of Singh.
"The data record including BBM messages obtained from Income Tax contains various nefarious transactions indicating therein that Qureshi has been liaisoning and obtaining illegal money from various public persons for getting their work done, through public servants. Besides, these public servants have also obtained illegal gratification/pecuniary gain either themselves or by their relatives," the ED complaint alleged.
Comments
Add new comment