Senior DDA official held for taking bribe

NEWDELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Principal Commissioner of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) JP Aggarwal on charges of seeking and accepting bribe in a flat allotment case.

The CBI alleged that Aggarwal showed “undue favours” to the accused persons.

Aggarwal is a former joint secretary in the Union home ministry. In his last assignment in the home ministry, Aggarwal handled the judicial division of the ministry. The judicial division mainly vets state legislations and ordinances submitted for presidential assent.

Agarwal is a 1998-batch Central Secretariat Service (CSS) officer and appointed in the DDA in April, 2015.

The CBI in a statement said it had registered a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act and relevant section of the Indian Penal Code in this regard.

Besides Aggarwal, the CBI arrested three private persons – Sunil Gupta, Anil Gupta and JP Sharma — in the case.

“During investigation, J P Aggarwal, Sunil Gupta and Anil Gupta were apprehended while transacting the alleged bribe amount of Rs 4 lakh for showing undue favour by J P Aggarwal in the matter of an alleged allotment of a flat. J P Sharma was also apprehended subsequently in the matter,” said a CBI spokesman.

Following the registration of case, the CBI conducted searches at the residential and official premises of the accused persons.

As joint secretary (judicial) in the home ministry, Aggarwal was also a secretary to the oneman committee of Justice GP Mathur set up in 2014 to look into the implementation of payment of enhanced compensation of Rs 5 lakh per person killed during the 1984 anti-sikh riots.

They are likely to be produced in a special CBI court on Thursday.