A Company Law Board (CLB) member and a company secretary have been arrested in South Delhi by the Central Bureau of Investigation on charges of taking and giving illegal gratification.
The accused were on Tuesday produced in a court that remanded them to six-day police custody.
The CBI, through its own sources, received information purportedly indicating that CLB member R. Vasudevan demanded money to favour a party in a case being presided over by him. The matter pertained to a dispute between two rival factions of a prominent media house management.
On a tip-off that money would change hands allegedly at the HUDCO Place residence of Mr. Vasudevan on Monday night, the agency mounted a raid and arrested him and the company secretary, Manoj Banthia. Preliminary investigations purportedly revealed that the money had been sent through a lawyer, Ankur Chawla.
The two along with Ankur Chawla and others have been named in the First Information Report registered by the CBI under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. “Mr. Chawla has not been arrested and will be summoned to join investigations as and when required,” said a CBI official.
During searches at seven locations in Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, the CBI teams purportedly seized Rs.55 lakh, including the alleged bribe money of Rs.7 lakh, from the residence of the CLB member and Rs.3 lakh from the possession of the company secretary. Several documents were seized and a search was also carried out at the lawyer’s office in Delhi.
