The Delhi government has recommended suspension of Sanjay Pratap Singh, Principal Secretary of the State Department of welfare of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities.
The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer was sentenced to a day long Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody on Wednesday after he and his assistant were caught allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 2.2 lakh on Tuesday.
Later on Wednesday, 31 gold biscuits and 800 gm of silver was recovered from one of Singh’s bank lockers, CBI sources said.
Singh, a 1984-batch IAS officer of AGMUT cadre, and his personal assistant Ramesh Kumar were produced before Special CBI Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna on Wednesday.
The CBI had sought seven days police remand saying they were required to be interrogated to ascertain whether other persons were involved too.
On the direction of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Secretary KK Sharma wrote to Union Home Ministry – which is cadre-controlling authority of IAS officers – and recommended Singh’s suspension.
We want to give a clear message to officers involved in corruption that they won’t be spared...Singh’s arrest message is if you are corrupt, we won’t spare you irrespective of whether you are a peon, MLAs, officer or minister…We want Centre to take all such officers (corrupt) back and we are ready for this.Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister, Delhi
CBI claims the accused were required to be confronted with incriminating documents that were recovered by the agency during the raids from their houses and office.
Along with examining bank lockers, CBI also wants to question the two accused regarding the property papers recovered during the raids.
CBI vs Defence Counsel
The accused had demanded a bribe of Rs 2.2 lakh from the complainant and Singh had instructed that the money be delivered to his personal assistant. It also claims that out of the Rs 2.2 lakh bribe, Singh’s assistant pocketed Rs 20,000.
The counsel appearing for both the accused opposed CBI’s plea seeking police custody, saying that the agency has already recovered the alleged incriminating documents and there was no need for any custodial interrogation. The counsel also said that the accused were cooperating in the probe.
The defence counsel argued that the alleged bribe money had already been seized. During the hearing, the court told CBI that there was no justification for seeking a seven-day police remand.
“In these circumstances, both the accused are remanded in CBI custody for one day. Both the accused be produced before the court on December 10,” the court said.
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