Arrested ED officer used Rs 20 currency note with a code to receive bribe money: CBI

Special Judge S P Naik-Nimbalkar granted the CBI his custody till August 14. The CBI’s Mumbai team had arrested Yadav after it received a complaint from the owner of company V S Gold. The entity had purchased gold from another company under probe.

Special public prosecutor Sandeep Singh, appearing for the CBI, submitted that Yadav was part of searches conducted in the house of the complainant in Mumbai on August 2-3. Yadav was not the investigation officer in the case and was accompanied by one enforcement officer, named Alok. The CBI claimed that Yadav and the enforcement officer told the complainant that as his son was not at home, they suspect he was destroying evidence, even though the evidence was documentary. Further, the enforcement officer asked the complainant to speak to Yadav. The accused allegedly demanded Rs 25 lakh to not arrest the complainant’s son. When the complainant said that he did not have so much money, the accused allegedly settled for Rs 20 lakh. Yadav allegedly took the phone numbers of the complainant’s son and daughter and contacted the latter about the location and time of delivery of the bribe amount. He also allegedly suggested to her that they should contact each other on WhatsApp and dictated the address at which to deliver the amount.

The CBI claimed that Yadav had suggested that the money can be delivered either in Mumbai or Delhi, and said that it could be done through an angadiya. SPP Singh said that the CBI was alerted about it, which verified that such a demand was made and laid a trap. Yadav had allegedly given a serial number to the complainant’s daughter, which was to be written on a ₹20 note to verify the identity of the person who would deliver the money.

The complainant’s driver posed as an angadiya. The CBI claimed Yadav verified it through the code on the ₹20 note and asked the driver to sit in the car, where the money was allegedly exchanged.

The CBI arrested Yadav and also conducted searches at his home. The CBI told the court that no cash was found but it claimed to have recovered documents and electronic devices, which are under analysis. It also sought his custody to probe whether he had been involved in similar offences earlier, claiming that he could possibly have a nexus in Mumbai and Delhi. The CBI also said that it wants to trace Yadav’s links with a contact in Mumbai.

Yadav’s lawyer, Abhinesh Yadav, told the court that he was falsely implicated after a man sent as a decoy took a lift in his car. He also claimed that he was an officer since 2010 and had a clean record. He said that Yadav was ready to co-operate with the police by giving voice samples. He also claimed that there were discrepancies in the timings of the search and arrest by the CBI. The court said these aspects are premature. “On the basis of the case records, it may be safely inferred that currency notes were recovered during the trap. The amount involved is huge. The CBI has also submitted that it wants to probe if a larger conspiracy is involved in the case… Investigation is at a nascent stage,” the court said, granting CBI Yadav’s custody.

The ED on Thursday said that it had also filed a separate case against Yadav under charges of money laundering.