New Delhi, March 10
The CBI today conducted countrywide
raids in 92 places, seizing a huge amount of cash and registered 34 cases
against 71 public servants, besides unearthing involvement of stamp paper scam
accused Abdul Karin Telgi in a multi-crore rupee petro-products adulteration racket,
CBI Director U S Mishra said here.
Addressing a press conference here, Mr
Mishra said some of the officials belonging to the anti-adulteration wing of
major government-owned oil companies were also suspected to be involved in the
adulteration racket.
The raids, which began early this morning, were likely to
continue till late night.
“It is suspected that many defunct companies,
earlier manufacturing petroleum-based products, are clandestinely diverting the
raw materials such as naphtha, kerosene, benzene for the adulteration of petrol
and diesel,” Mr Mishra said, adding some of the officials of Bharat Petroleum
and Hindustan Petroleum were also allegedly involved in the racket.
The CBI
Director said the front companies owned by Telgi, allegedly involved in the
petro-product adulteration racket, included Progressive Oil, M/s Gandhar
Company, M/s Thane Co, M/s Arihant Co. M/s Indian Oil Tankers.
Mr Mishra said
nine cases of adulteration of petrol and diesel had come to light during the
surprise checks. As many as 31 oil tankers were seized in Mumbai and five
tankers carrying benzene and naphtha were detained in Chennai.
Mr Mishra
claimed that some of the oil tankers were found without any seal and were
carrying adulterated petrol.
The raids were conducted as part of the Vigilance
Week launched by the CBI from today with an objective to target identified
officers of ‘‘doubtful integrity and check corruption in areas directly
affecting the public,” Mr Mishra said.
In the countrywide swoop, searches were
conducted in Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Vishakhapatnam, Patna,
Ranchi and Kochi and a huge amount of cash from various government officials was
seized, he added.
Among those raided include officials from Bharat Sanchar
Nigam Limited (BSNL), Customs Department, Hindustan Fertiliser Ltd, public
sector banks, FCI etc, he said.
In one such raid, the CBI claimed to have
recovered Rs 1.92 crore from a senior accounts officer of BSNL posted at Patna.
“We want to give a message that the CBI means business. More thrust will be
given to check corruption in government offices,” Mr Mishra said.
During the
raids, the CBI also claimed to have busted a unit that was involved in
manufacturing of fake and spurious drugs, Mr Mishra said.
