CBI busts racket promising Governor's post, Rajya Sabha seat for Rs 100 cr

New Delhi, July 25

The CBI today claimed to have busted a multi-state racket where plum posts like that of a Governor of a state and seats in the Rajya Sabha were allegedly offered by a group of people at a price of Rs 100 crore.

The agency conducted searches at seven locations in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka recently in the case. Four persons, Kamalakar Premkumar Bandgar of Maharashtra’s Latur, Ravindra Vithal Naik of Karnataka’s Belgaum and Mahendra Pal Arora and Abhishek Boora from Delhi-NCR, were arrested, the CBI said in a statement.

Another accused in the case, Mohammed Aijaz Khan, escaped during the search operation after allegedly assaulting CBI officers, it said, adding a separate FIR had been filed against him.

A special CBI court, however, granted bail to all four arrested. In the FIR, the agency alleged that Bandgar, who impersonated a senior CBI officer and flaunted his “connections” with highly placed officials, had asked Boora, Arora, Khan and Naik to bring any sort of work that he could fix in lieu of payment of huge illegal gratification.

“They conspired with the sole ulterior motive of cheating private persons by falsely assuring them of arrangement of seats in the Rajya Sabha, appointment as governor or as chairperson in different government-run organisations,” the CBI alleged.

The agency came to know about the alleged racket through its sources that Boora discussed with Bandgar how the latter’s purported connections with high-ranking officials playing “pivotal roles” in appointments could be exploited to get the work done. It surfaced that the accused were attempting to cheat people against a huge consideration (Rs 100 crore), it is alleged in the FIR. — TNS

Modus operandi

• 4 arrested after raids across seven locations in four states
• One of them impersonated a senior CBI officer, flaunted links
• They would drop names of top bureaucrats, politicians to impress their clients