Rs 40 lakh was meant for EOW team: CBI
Aneesha Sareen
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 14
The CBI today said the arrest of two police officers, including a DSP and a Sub-Inspector in a bribe case of Rs 40 lakh yesterday, is just a tip of the iceberg and the entire team of EOW investigating the cheating case against GS Chawla and others are involved in the bribery case. The CBI also said the role of senior officers was also under the scanner and there were more officers of the EOW who were meant to share the bribe money.
All the four accused, including DSP Ram Chander Meena, SI Surinder Kumar, Sanjay Dahuja, owner of Berkely Automobiles and Aman Grover, owner of KLG Hotel, were sent to two-day police custody by the court.
The CBI also said besides the amount of Rs 40 lakh taken as bribe, a post-dated cheque amounting to Rs 30 lakh had also been paid to accused Aman Grover which it had taken in its possession.
“The investigation so far has revealed that Rs 40 lakh was to be shared among the entire team members of EOW who were investigating the FIR registered against Chawlas,” the CBI told the court.
The transcript of the recorded conversation between the DSP and Sanjay Dahuja was also put before the court by the CBI.
“During the interrogation, all the accused persons did not disclose the names of other police officials who were involved in the conspiracy. Furthermore, the conversation held between accused persons and the complainant during verification and trap proceedings are of lengthy duration and as such the specimen voice samples cannot be taken due to the paucity of time,” the CBI told the court.
“It is further submitted that the specimen voice samples of all the accused are to be taken and sent to the CFSL for examination and comparison in interest of investigation,” said the CBI.
Heated arguments were witnessed in the court when the defence counsel opposed the CBI’s plea for custody and said the accused had been falsely framed.
Counsel for DSP Ram Chander Meena advocate Harish Bhardawaj said that it was a ploy by the CBI to falsely implicate the accused. “The amount that was being exchanged was to reach a compromising in the property dispute case registered by the police on complaint of Deepa Duggal. Deepa Duggal has also not opposed the anticipatory bail plea of the accused. A false case was made out in order to take revenge. The settlement between both the parties has been given a different shape by the CBI. The cheque amount of Rs 30 lakh is in favour of Aman Grover and in no way was the bribe amount,” he said.
The trap case
A complaint was received by the CBI from Guneet Kaur alleging that Deepa Duggal had got an FIR registered on December 12, 2014, against Guneet’s parents, Gurkirpal Singh Chawla, Jagjit Kaur Chawla and her brother Hamrit Singh Chawla. Aman Grover is the son-in-law of Deepa Duggal and Sanjay Dahuja is his friend. The complaint said the police was trying to arrest her father, mother and brother .The CBI said that Aman Grover contacted Gurneet Kaur and informed her that Sanjay Dahuja was in contact with DSP (EOW) Ram Chander Meena and SI Surinder Kumar. Aman Grover further informed that DSP Ram Chander and SI Surinder demanded a bribe of Rs 75 lakh through Sanjay Dahuja for not arresting her parents and brother and to reach a compromise in the case. The CBI FIR stated that Rs 40 lakh was to be paid to the police officials and Rs 30 lakh to Aman Grover to get the matter settled. The CBI laid a trap and recovered Rs 40 lakh and a post-dated cheque of Rs 30 lakh from Aman Grover.
