CBI finds messages between censor board CEO, witness
MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), which is probing the bribery case against censor board CEO Rakesh Kumar, has come across messages exchanged between Kumar and a witness in the case. The witness, Krishna Palli, allegedly accepted bribes on Kumar’s behalf to push for the clearance of films.
Highly placed sources in the CBI told HT that Palli, who works as a representative of the censor board, told the police in his statement that he would send messages to Kumar on an instant messaging application from two of his phone numbers [9820538146 and 9664937607] to two mobile numbers used by Kumar [9969445454 and 9987587788].
Palli, in his statement, said he used to ask Kumar over messages to issue censor certificates (CC) for films on an urgent basis to those who pay him up. He claimed that Kumar would sign the CC’S upon his request and Palli, in return, would collect money on behalf of Kumar.
The CBI has conducted a data analysis on Palli’s mobile phones using the Technical Analysis Forensic Unit methodology. Printouts of the conversations will be used as evidence against Kumar. Kumar, the CEO of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), was arrested on Monday for allegedly accepting bribes to clear films.
Palli had earlier claimed he had passed on more than Rs18 lakh in cash, which he had collected on behalf of Kumar, in the last eight months. He told the CBI the money was delivered Aug 12 : CBI case registered by Pravin Mohare, an authorised agent who had applied for a censor certification for a regional film from in Chhattisgarh. Case registered under sections of Prevention of Corruption of Act, 1988
Aug 13: Shripati Mishra, an agent working on behalf of producers for issuance of censor certificates caught while accepting a bribe from complainant. Sarvesh Jaiswal, an advisory panel member of board arrested.
Aug 18: CBFC CEO Rakesh
Kumar (in pic) arrested
at Kumar’s Badhwar Park residence and to a hotel near Churchgate, in envelopes with Rs15,000 to Rs1.50 lakh in cash.
Kumar’s lawyer, Mahesh Vaswani had earlier told the media that Kumar was falsely implicated as he was fighting corruption in the censor board.
The CBI has started recording statements of various other witnesses in the case too. Officials said they were also in the process of questioning the three arrested accused in the case — Kumar, Shripati Mishra, an agent working on the behalf of producers for issuance of CCS, and Sarvesh Jaiswal, an advisory panel member of censor board since 2013 — together, to see if there are any discrepancies in their statements.