CBI books former chief, controversial meat exporter for graft

New Delhi, February 20

In a first, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday carried out searches at the residence of its former chief Amar Pratap Singh after registering an FIR against him for allegedly favouring controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi.

CBI sources said a case has been registered against Singh, Qureshi, his employee Aditya Sharma, owner of Trimax group of companies Pradeep Koneru and other unknown persons.

They said the agency conducted searches in four cities — New Delhi, Ghaziabad, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Qureshi has been accused of accepting money from several people for securing favours from public servants.

The FIR was lodged on a complaint from the Enforcement Directorate, the country's anti-money laundering probe agency.

The premises searched included those of an employee of Qureshi, his company, Singh's residence 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.

Singh, a 1974-batch IPS officer, headed the agency between November 30, 2010 and November 30, 2012.

The CBI has based its FIR on the complaint forwarded by the Enforcement Directorate chief 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 exchanged between AP Singh and Moin Qureshi even after the retirement of the IPS officer.

Only three messages, in addition to 22, were allegedly exchanged between Singh and Qureshi when the former was the CBI Director, according to the ED.

The message listed by Enforcement Directorate, during Singh's tenure as CBI Chief,  in its complaint are as follows: "In one of the messages when Singh was still the CBI chief, Qureshi wrote to him on October 3, 2012, "Sir, the petition I gave you last nite (sic) please help TS Narayansami ex-Chairman Bank of India who is known to our family for 30 years. Others I don't know. Thanks and regards. (sic)"    Singh, responded after seven hours, writing, "Checked. Charge sheet already filed. Now he has to approach courts for relief."

Qureshi, replied, "OK Sir. Thanks and Regards".

CBI has booked Singh, Qureshi and others under sections related to criminal conspiracy and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. — PTI