Court remands agent, CBFC member in custody till Aug 20

CBI, meanwhile, has seized certain documents of other movies and trailors, which were found in the Badhwar park residence.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court Friday remanded Shripati Mishra, authorised agent for censor certification and Sarvesh Jaiswal, advisory panel member, Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), to police custody till August 20.

The two were arrested following a complaint filed by another authorised agent on allegations that Mishra was demanding a bribe on behalf of Rakesh Kumar, CEO, CBFC, for issuing censor certificate for a regional movie.

Kumar, along with Mishra and Jaiswal, are named as accused in an FIR, after it was alleged that the three colluded and a bribe was demanded to clear the regional language film from Chhattisgarh, Mor Dauki Ke Bihav, within a week as the movie was scheduled for release on August 15.

“The CEO has not been arrested so far. An anti-corruption trap was laid and Mishra was trapped demanding and accepting Rs 70,000 on behalf of Rakesh Kumar. Jaiswal was also trapped while accepting the bribe on Kumar’s behalf. The searches in the house of Mishra and Jaiswal are also in progress,” said the CBI in its statement Friday.

Members of the film industry say that corruption and irregularities are rampant in the CBFC and that the process of getting a film cleared by the censors needs any A-list Bollywood producer to shell out up to Rs 3 lakh.

The CBI, meanwhile, has seized certain documents of other movies and trailors, which were found in the Badhwar park residence of CEO Kumar, along with cash and jewellery.

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