NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: In a major twist in the investigation into the Rs 5,000 crore fake medicine manufacturing racket, the CBI team inquiring the case arrested a 2012-batch Haryana cadre IPS officer who allegedly demanded a whopping Rs 3 crore bribe to help a Puducherry based businessman escape from the case using his influence over agency officials.
The officer, Deepak Gahlawat, who was posted as a regional director in the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) at the time of the alleged offence, is accused of assuring N Raja alias Valliappan, a businessman from Puducherry, a favourable outcome in the CBI investigation into the fake medicine racket.
The CBI said searches were conducted at multiple premises linked to the IPS officer, leading to the seizure of digital devices, hard disks and documents. During their probe, the agency recovered about Rs 25 lakh as trap money and seized Rs 90 lakh in cash along with incriminating documents. Further investigation is under way.
Meanwhile, a Delhi court on Wednesday sent the officer to one-day CBI custody after his arrest. The CBI had sought his five-day custody.
The case stems from a CBI trap operation conducted on June 8, during which Delhi Police Crime Branch inspector Pradeep Singh and an alleged middleman, Rajkumar, were arrested. The agency had also registered an FIR against Singh, Rajkumar, and Raja in the case.
According to officials, Raja had gotten in touch with Singh who arranged a meeting with a senior public servant in the civil aviation sector. The public servant allegedly promised "a favourable investigation" in the fake drug manufacruting racket by using his personal influence over CBI officials and allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 3 crore, with Rs 1.5 crore to be paid upfront.
The businessman then arranged Rs 1 crore through a hawala transaction, which was allegedly paid to Singh, who in turn handed over Rs 50 lakh to another middleman, Prabhat, who was known to the public servant. Meanwhile, Singh kept Rs 25 lakh in his office, and was arrested on June 8 along with middleman, Rajkumar, officials said.
Earlier, the investigation into the racket had exposed a countrywide ring that is involved in the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit medicines. A team of police officials from Agra, Uttar Pradesh had come to Puducherry last December as part of their investigation into four cases of fake medicines being sold in that State.
The Crime Branch-CID had searched the manufacturing unit in Thiruphuvanai Palayam, Mettupalayam, and also places where medicines packed in a leading pharma company’s label were stored.
The issue took a political turn after the Congress alleged that BJP leader Embalam Selvam, the then Speaker of the union territory, was involved in the racket. While former chief minister V Narayanaswami led a protest in Delhi, Girish Chodankar, the All India Congress Committee in-charge for Puducherry, released a photo showing Selvam and Raja meeting Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Later, the Special Secretary (Home) of Puducherry wrote to the CBI, requesting it to take over the investigation. The central agency had then registered cases against Vivek Venkatesan of Amman Pharma, N Raja of Reddiarpalayam, and AK Rana of Meenakshi Pharma of various serious charges, including criminal conspiracy, adulteration of drugs, and manufacture and sale of spurious drugs.
(With inputs from PTI, Bureau, and Online Desk)