The middleman involved in the attempt by a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) official to bribe a CBI officer has turned out to be an old hand at influencing cases at the Central agency. Dinesh Chand Gupta, who was arrested by CBI on Thursday along with MHA section officer Dheeraj Kumar Singh while attempting to bribe to a CBI officer to influence an investigation, had been arrested in 2013 for allegedly brokering a deal between a private company and a CBI officer. The officer in that case, Vivek Dutt, was investigating the Coal Blocks Allocation cases. Both Gupta and Dutt had been arrested by the agency while with Rs 7 lakh. On Thursday, Singh, a section officer with the Police 1 division of the MHA, was arrested for allegedly trying to bribe a CBI DIG. The division looks after matters related to empanelment of IPS officers. Singh and Gupta were arrested while delivering a bribe of Rs 16 lakh. According to sources, Singh was trying to influence the outcome of a preliminary inquiry in a case related to alleged irregularities in a project related to the National Highway Authority of India. “The probe is open and will also look at if anyone superior to Singh in the police 1 division was also involved,” a CBI official said.
