Krishnamurthy remanded to CBI custody

A. Krishnamurthy, alleged ‘‘kingpin’’ of the racket to obtain lucrative transfers in the Ministry of Finance, was today ...

A. Krishnamurthy, alleged ‘‘kingpin’’ of the racket to obtain lucrative transfers in the Ministry of Finance, was today remanded to ten days custody of the CBI.

The investigating agency stated that Rs 69 lakh in cash, Rs 50 lakh in undated cheques and Rs 35 lakh in the form of promissory notes was recovered from Krishnamurthy’s residence.

The Chennai-based chartered accountant, had been arrested from Chennai on May 22, and was brought here on transit remand. The CBI prosecutor alleged the most ‘‘crucial’’ document recovered was the fax copy of the transfer letter that had been faxed to him by personal assistant to Minister of State for Finance R. Perumal Swamy.

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‘‘He appears to be the kingpin in the racket where money was collected and passed on to public servants,’’ the CBI counsel said. According to the CBI, IRS officer Anurag Vardhan had obtained a transfer to Mumbai through Krishnamurthy.

He had given over the Rs 4 lakh to Swamy and Padmanabhan, a project associate at the centre for Atmospheric Science, IIT, Delhi. The trio was remanded to CBI custody yesterday The CBI also said they would also like to probe the 54 transfers that had been made on May 21.