Censor board chief’s arrest: CBI suspects organised racket
Members of CBFC told CBI they have collected money for him multiple times
MUMBAI: Officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) involved in handling the case of Rakesh Kumar, CEO of India’s censor board, who has been arrested for accepting a bribe, say they are probing allegations that he used to regularly accept bribes. Kumar’s lawyer, Mahesh Vaswani, who appeared for him along with senior counsel Harshad Ponda, however, said his client had fought corruption and was being falsely implicated.
CBI sources who requested anonymity said one of those arrested earlier in the case, Sarvesh Jaiswal, member of the advisory panel of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), had claimed he paid Kumar Rs1 lakh and Rs6,000 at an Andheri mall on August 1 and Rs40,000 on August 9. Officials said they were scanning the mall’s CCTV footage to see if the two could be seen together.
The officials said another CBFC representative, Krishna Palli, had also claimed he had collected more than Rs18 lakh in the last eight months for Kumar and that the money
would either be delivered to Kumar’s Badhwar Park residence, or at a famous coffee shop at Churchgate. Palli reportedly told them that the cash — between Rs15,000 and Rs1.5 lakh at a time — would be received in envelopes.
“There appears to be a larger
racket within the CBFC, by way of conspiracy among agents, other members and Kumar,” said a CBI official.
Officials said they were investigating allegations that Kumar, who joined the censor board in January, would demand Rs25,000 to Rs1.5 lakh for issuing a certificate for a feature film within 7-8 days, and Rs15,000 for a certificate for short films.
Kumar has two lockers at banks in Mumbai and Vadodara, the details of which he has not give the investigating agency. CBI sources suspect the lockers
contain documents that can incriminate Kumar.
On August 12, a case was registered by Pravin Mohare, an authorised agent, who was trying to get a censor certificate for a regional film ‘Mor Dauki ke Bihav’.
Following this, another agent, Shripati Mishra, and a member of the censor board advisory panel, Sarvesh Jaiswal ,were caught, on August 14, allegedly accepting Rs70,000 as bribe.
Kumar was arrested on Monday, after being questioned for four days.