Court sends MHA official to 5-day CBI custody

Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar allowed the probe agency to quiz Joshi, who was arrested from west Delhi on Sunday, till May 20.

Seeking Joshi’s custody, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) argued that files relating to several NGOs had gone missing from the Home Ministry and they were recovered from his house and he was not supposed to take them away. It contended that he was not cooperating in the probe so his custodial interrogation was required.

The CBI alleged that Joshi had issued notices dishonestly to many NGOs/ societies registered under the FCRA 2010, which have been receiving significant amount of foreign contributions, in an arbitrary manner. 

It said some of these organisations are Care India, Snehalya Charitable Trust, Indian HIV/AIDS Alliance and All India Primary Teachers Federation and alleged that representatives of some of these organisations were called and Joshi demanded and obtained illegal gratification.

It further said that when a CBI team had gone to his house, he was not present there and even his cellphone was switched off from May 11-15.

The custody plea, however, was opposed by Joshi’s counsel who said his cellphone was not switched off and he had lost his phone in Ujjain and in his 24-year career he was not even issued an office memo.

Joshi was arrested on Sunday after he allegedly gave unconvincing answers to the questions posed by a team of Special Crime division of the CBI.