MHA official held for offering Rs 2 cr bribe to DIG-level officer

New Delhi: The CBI on Thursday arrested a Home Ministry official in Delhi for offering a bribe of Rs 2 crore to a senior agency official in exchange for settling an investigation, officials here said.

They said that Dheeraj Kumar Singh, Section Officer (IPS-IV) of the Police-I Division in the Ministry of Home Affairs was arrested from the Capital city in a trap while trying to pay an amount of Rs 16 lakh in cash, alleged to be the first installment of the entire amount. The Central Bureau of Investigation also arrested Dinesh Chand Gupta, a private person in the case, who was with the MHA official when the bribe was being paid.

According to officials, the CBI was probing a Preliminary Enquiry against a private Indian company, involving some public officials when Singh had approached a DIG-ranked CBI official with an offer of Rs 2 crore to "settle" the probe. The DIG-ranked officer immediately took the matter to his seniors and became the complainant in the case, which led to the agency setting up an elaborate trap for the ministry official and his co-accused.

Officials said that after the arrest was made, agency sleuths also conducted searches at Singh's residential premises, from where several incriminating documents were recovered, which are being scrutinised by investigators.

Both Singh and Gupta were produced in a designated court here on Thursday.

The CBI had issued a statement, later in the day, saying, "The CBI also advises the public not to attempt to settle any investigation matters with the CBI by using influence and also not to be allured by

services of middlemen who may offer to settle cases with the agency."