CBI arrests top IAS officer in corruption case, state suspends him

THREE DAYS after his residences, and those of his family members in Raipur were raided in connection with a corruption case, the CBI arrested 1988-batch IAS officer B L Agarwal, posted as Principal Secretary, Higher Education in the state, his brother-in-law Anand Agarwal and another person identified as Bhagwan Singh.

The CBI has alleged that Agarwal, through hawala dealers, had agreed to pay Rs 1.5 crore in return for “help” in two previous cases of corruption that the CBI had filed against him in 2010. He, along with others, was produced before CBI Special judge Virender Goyal in Delhi’s Patiala House court on Tuesday afternoon. All three accused have been sent to five-day CBI custody.

The Chhattisgarh state government issued a statement on Tuesday evening, placing Agarwal under immediate suspension.

According to the FIR, registered on February 19, through Bhagwan Singh, Agarwal attempted to give Rs 1.5 crore to one Syed Burhanuddin so the matter could be “reasonably settled”. The FIR states that Burhanuddin, with the aliases of O P Singh and O P Sharma claimed to “be in the Prime Ministers Office”.

The FIR states that as per the tip-off CBI received, all three met on February 11, and Agarwal agreed to pay the 1.5 crore in instalments to influence the case, especially for a case against him in the CBI to be shifted to the Economic Offences Wing of the state government.

It further says that in the next few days, Agarwal sent instalments of up to Rs 45 lakh through various sources to Bhagwan Singh.

However, Singh and Burhanuddin also agreed to accept part of the payment through the delivery of 2 kg of gold. A CBI release on Tuesday said that the two kg gold, which has since been recovered, was meant to be delivered by Anand Agarwal.