The Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday filed a case against former Union minister Dilip Singh Judeo and his personal secretary Natwar Rateria in connection with bribery allegations.
The CBI filed the case in the designated court against Judeo, Rateria, Bhupinder Singh Patel alias Rahul (the alleged bribe giver and an employee of cable network in Raipur) and Arvind Vijay Mohan, an art dealer who allegedly provided the logistics for secretly record on videotape the exchange of money at a five-star hotel in Delhi, CBI spokesman G Mohanty told reporters.
All the four and some 'unknown persons' had been booked under Section 7 (public servant taking money other than legal remuneration), Section 12 (abetment of the offence under Section 7), Section 13 (2) read with Section 13 (i)(d) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Following this, raids were conducted at 17 places in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Chhattisgarh, which included the official and native residences of Judeo, residence of former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi, offices of Akash channel, its employees and its directors.
The CBI claims to have seized several incriminating documents from the residence of Jogi and the premises of Akash channel.
According to the CBI FIR, an in depth inquiry after registration of a Preliminary Enquiry revealed that the person identifying himself as Rahul was introduced to the former minister as Rahul Sarogi by an acquaintance, Shekhar Singh of Bhopal, whom Judeo knew for the last 25 years.
Rahul, whose identity was established as Bhupinder Singh Patel, had visited Judeo's office, residence and hotel several times since July 2003.
It was found that Patel alias Rahul was using a particular mobile phone registered in the name of Rohit Choudhury. He had obtained it from Rohit some time during July or August, the spokesman said.
Judeo and Rateria had visited Taj Mansingh Hotel on November 5, 2003 where Patel alias Rahul was present along with Manish, whose identity is yet to be established.
Patel paid Rs 900,000 to Judeo in exchange for future assistance with regard to mining projects in Chhattisgarh and Orissa, the spokesman said.
Rahul was in close contact with Mohan, who had arranged to secretly record the exchange of money on videotape. Mohan was in frequent communication with a particular number registered in the name of Ajit Jogi and his son Amit, the spokesman said quoting the FIR.
The FIR also stated that an analysis of Patel's conversations on his mobile phone revealed that apart from Mohan, he was in touch with Raj Awasthi, Rajat Prasad and Rohit Prasad, all connected with Akash channel. He was also found to have another mobile phone registered in the name of Akash channel.
Though the report of the forensic examination of the videotape is not yet out, the spokesman said the Preliminary Enquiry was converted into a regular case after the agency corroborated several facts in the case.
Judeo refused to comment on the development. He and Rateria were questioned twice by the CBI in the last two weeks and have been asked to make themselves available for further interrogation.
The agency had registered a Preliminary Enquiry after the Indian Express exposed the episode.
