The CBI has booked its deputy superintendent of police (DySP) Arun Bhashkar, a customs official, a GST official and a private person in a Rs 20 lakh bribery scandal.
Bhashkar, while serving as an inspector in the CBI, was investigating a case of corruption at Nhava Sheva, and allegedly took bribe from one of the customs officials.
The case, in which Bhaskar took the bribe, pertains to the CBI FRI registered in March 2023, against customs superintendent Roshan Kumar Alok and two civilians, Ashish Kamdar and Deepak Parekh. Bhashkar, then a CBI inspector, was assigned to investigate the case before his promotion to DSP. The CBI examined numerous officials’ suspicious message exchanges with the arrested agents. It is alleged that Arun Bhashkar, through CGST’s assistant commissioner Yogesh Kumar and a private person, Vijay Meware, allegedly collected the bribe from Roshan Kumar to favour him in the case. It was alleged Arun Bhashkar allegedly abused his position to extract money from Roshan in exchange for favourable treatment in the corruption case.
It was alleged that a few importers were bringing in goods by misusing the ‘transfer of residence’ facility. It allows people to import their personal and household items to the country duty-free or at a reduced rate if he or she had lived abroad for at least two years before shifting to India permanently. The agents operated at the port for many years and kept engaging new officials into their syndicate after earlier transfers During the investigation, CBI was examining the role of Roshan Kumar, a customs preventive officer, in the case. It is alleged that Arun Bhashkar, through CGST’s assistant commissioner Yogesh Kumar and a private person, Vijay Meware, allegedly collected the bribe from Roshan to favour him in the case.
One of the CBI’s DSPs, Ranjeet Kumar Pandey, is the complainant in the CBI case against his colleague Arun Bhashkar. Pandey had recently received a complaint letter alleging that Bhashkar took a Rs 20 lakh bribe from one of the Customs officials he was investigating. Additional SP Pramod Kumar is probing the case.
Evidence gathered from Parekh and his nephew Kamdar mobile phones showed messages about bribe payments and hawala transfers to Customs officials’ hometowns who were serving at Nhava Sheva port and the airport.
Source #TOI
