IPS officer arrested for seeking Rs 3 crore to ‘fix’ CBI fake drugs case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday arrested a 2012-batch IPS officer of Haryana cadre in connection with the Puducherry counterfeit medicine racket case, a month after arresting two men, including a Delhi Police inspector, for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1 crore.

The officer, identified as Deepak Gahlawat, allegedly told N Raja alias Valliappanalias Rajasekhar, who the police say is the prime accused in the case, that he could “arrange” relief in the CBI cases through his “connections” within the agency.

Gahlawat allegedly demanded Rs 3 crore from Raja in the Rs 5,000-crore counterfeit medicine racket in Puducherry. He had allegedly already taken Rs 1 crore from Raja after promising of securing him relief, the source added.

“After identifying him and, after informing his department, we have summoned him and questioned him multiple times. We have now arrested him and are still probing the role of his internal contacts in the Central agency,” a source said.

Gahlawat is currently serving as a Regional Director with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

“During investigation, it was disclosed that the said IPS officer had demanded illegal gratification claiming that he could exercise his personal influence and obtain relief for private persons in the cases being investigated by CBI in relation to sale of counterfeit drugs in Puducherry,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“Earlier, the CBI had arrested the accused Delhi Police Inspector along with six other private persons, which led to the recovery of approximately Rs 25 lakh of trap amount and Rs 90 lakh, along with other incriminating documents seized during the investigation,” the spokesperson added.

Previous arrests

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On June 8, CBI registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Raja; Pradeep Kumar Singh, an inspector with the Delhi Police Crime Branch’s Southern Range; and Rajkumar alias Madhanraj, who is alleged to have acted as an intermediary. The FIR also named unknown public servants and private individuals.

“Raja had arranged a payment of Rs 1 crore through a hawala transaction. The arrested inspector received the payment through a hawala operator and gave it to one Prabhat, who was an acquaintance of an IPS officer. Singh kept the remaining Rs 25 lakh in his house and CBI arrested Singh and Rajkumar with the balance amount of Rs 24.70 lakh,” CBI said.

According to the Central agency, the amount was the first instalment of a larger payoff.

A source said that according to the FIR, Singh had been facilitating the payment by the accused, who was attempting to secure undue relief in the CBI cases. “After the fresh FIR, Raja started looking for a source in CBI and met Inspector Singh. He was told that his senior officer would help him and would charge a fee for doing so,” an officer said.

Involvement of a ‘public servant’

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According to the FIR, Raja and Rajkumar met Singh at Aerocity on May 14. “Singh allegedly escorted both of them to the office of an unidentified senior public servant located in the vicinity. The senior public servant allegedly assured Raja of favourable relief in the CBI cases,” the FIR claimed.

It also claimed that on May 16, Raja told his wife that the public servant had agreed to help in return for Rs 3 crore and had sought an advance of Rs 1.5 crore.

“Raja then allegedly began arranging the money. Rajkumar later travelled to Vadodara and met Singh to work out the modalities for delivering the bribe money to the public servant in Delhi. After the meeting, both allegedly travelled to Delhi together. Raja asked his wife to keep the funds ready and contacted a hawala operator in Chennai to transfer Rs 1 crore to Delhi as part of the advance bribe payment,” the FIR said.

The money was to be delivered to Singh in the Chandni Chowk area on June 8, but before that could happen, the accused were caught by CBI, it added.

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The counterfeit and spurious medicines manufacturing operation was uncovered following raids by the police and the CB-CID in Puducherry last year, during which massive stocks of fake drugs and raw materials were seized. Raja was arrested in December.

The Puducherry Police later found that several politicians were involved, and the investigation was transferred to CBI. The agency officially registered a fresh case against Raja in March this year.