Confidential statement of CBI chief on Deshmukh probe leaked by agency officer, says chargesheet

New Delhi, December 23

A confidential statement of CBI chief Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, recorded during his previous tenure in connection with bribery allegations against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, was recovered by the CBI from devices of an arrested agency official and a lawyer of the politician, officials said on Thursday.

Both the agency official and the lawyer have been charge-sheeted by the agency for allegedly subverting the case against the former minister.

According to the charge sheet filed before a special court here, the CBI recovered the statement, recorded by the investigation officer of the case against Deshmukh, from a pen drive seized from its sub-inspector Abhishek Tiwari and the phone of lawyer Anand Daga. Tiwari was part of the team probing Deshmukh.

The CBI has accused Tiwari of hatching a conspiracy with Daga and leaking sensitive and secret documents to subvert the investigation pertaining to the case that was handed over to the agency by the Bombay High Court to probe corruption allegations against Deshmukh.

The CBI had arrested Tiwari and Daga and both are now in judicial custody.

A forensic analysis of digital devices recovered from Tiwari and Daga revealed the statement of CBI Director Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, when he was Director General, CISF, telephonically recorded by the investigating officer of Deshmukh case and CBI Deputy SP Mukesh Kumar on May 6, 2021.

Kumar had saved this statement on an external hard drive and no other members of the investigation team were aware of this fact, they said.

Jaiswal was questioned under Section 161 of the CrPC about allegations against Deshmukh during his tenure as the Maharashtra Director General of Police.

The forensic analysis showed that the document was found saved in a pen drive of Tiwari on August 1, 2021 and mobile phone of Daga on August 5, 2021.

Jaiswal, a 1985-batch IPS from Maharashtra, had assumed charge as Director, CBI, on May 26, 2021 after handing over the charge of Director General, Central Industrial Security Force. PTI