Punjab 2015 graft case: Businessman records statement, seeks to become approver

Dahuja stated before the magistrate, “On August 13, 2015, the amount of Rs 40 lakh was paid by Guneet Kaur and amount was meant for R C Meena, DSP, to settle and compromise the case registered by Deepa Duggal who was mother-in-law of Aman Grover, against Guriqbal Singh Chawla and his family member.”

Dahuja stated that on August 10, 2015, M P S Chawla, uncle of Guneet Kaur, and Aman Grover came to his office for settlement of the matter. Grover demanded Rs 1 crore to settle the matter, and the amount included the bribe for Meena and IO of the case, Surinder Kumar (now dead). Dahuja added that the bribe amount was later reduced to Rs 40 lakh on his request to Meena, and then on August 12, 2015, the amount of Rs 70 lakh was agreed between Aman and Guneet in which Rs 30 lakh was in the shape of a cheque in the name of Deepa Duggal and Rs 40 lakh was to be paid in cash to Grover, who had to further deliver it to DSP R C Meena.

“My role was only to mediate between Chawla and Guneet Kaur family and Aman Grover’s family,” submitted Dahuja in his statement on Saturday.

Dahuja submitted that on August 13, 2015, Guneet Kaur came to his office with a woman, Mandeep Kang, and handed over a cheque for Rs 30 lakh to Grover along with the compromise deed. “Then she (Guneet Kaur) pushed the bag of cash towards me saying that it was Rs 40 lakh in cash and the amount was quite visible to me. To which I said I don’t want this money and this money is for R C Meena, DSP, and let me go to the EOW Sector 17, so that I could bring Meena with me to hand over the bribe amount to him which he had demanded.”

Dahuja was then about to leave the room, when a CBI official arrived and arrested him and Aman Grover. “I told them (CBI) to call R C Meena but R C Meena himself called me and and asked me about my whereabouts and the compromise and the bribe amount by saying ‘samaan’.”

Dahuja submitted that he then told Meena that the amount ‘Samaan’ has been taken, on which Meena said that he will collect it from his office.

The case is scheduled for hearing in the CBI court on March 6, when the court of Dr Sushil Kumar Garg will hear the arguments on the approver plea of Dahuja.

The case pertains to 2015, when Guneet Kaur, daughter of G S Chawla, had given a complaint to the CBI that the EOW officials have been demanding Rs 40 lakh for settling the case and for not arresting his father G S Chawla. The CBI had then laid a trap in August 2015 and arrested former DSP EOW (Economic Offences Wing) R C Meena along with Sub-Inspector Surinder Kumar Bhardwaj from the EOW office in Sector 17 in August 2015. The CBI had also arrested two businessmen Aman Grover, owner of KLG Hotel, and Sanjay Dahuja, owner of Berkeley Automobiles, for allegedly accepting the bribe for DSP Meena and SI Surinder Kumar Bhardwaj (died now).

The three accused — R C Meena, Dahuja and Grover — are facing charges under sections 7, 13(1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code in the special CBI court.