CBI arrests its DSP, inspector for ‘helping’ bank fraud accused

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 20

The CBI today arrested its Deputy Superintendent of Police (Deputy SP) RK Rishi and Inspector Kapil Dhankad along with an advocate in connection with a bribery racket run by them within the agency to help companies accused of siphoning off bank loan funds worth Rs 4,300 crore.

All three arrested were presented before a special CBI court, which sent them to five days of the agency’s custody. Agency officials said the CBI sleuths also conducted searches at Rishi’s house in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh and that of his wife in Roorkee.

‘Leaked crucial information’

• The officers allegedly helped companies accused of siphoning off bank loan funds worth Rs4,300 crore
• Deputy SP RK Rishi had allegedly taken Rs30 lakh bribe for facilitating leak of information from CBI, while Inspector Kapil Dhankad had taken Rs25 lakh

Rishi, Dhankad and advocate Manohar Malik were booked by the CBI along with others for allegedly “compromising the integrity of investigation of certain cases on extraneous pecuniary considerations” last week.

Charged with manipulating probe

The CBI has booked Deputy SP Rishi, Inspector Dhankad and advocate Manohar Malik along with Deputy SP RK Sangwan and another lawyer Arvind Kumar Gupta for allegedly “compromising the integrity of investigation of certain cases on extraneous pecuniary considerations”.

The crucial case related to information and documents, which were being allegedly leaked since 2018 to individuals/companies under investigation for bank frauds, they said. The agency has already established that Rishi had taken Rs 30 lakh bribe in two tranches for facilitating the leak of information from the agency, while Dhankad had taken around Rs 25 lakh from the two companies, the officials said.

A case was registered against four CBI officers – Rishi (deployed in CBI academy at Ghaziabad), RK Sangwan (Deputy SP in Special Crimes Unit), Dhankad (Inspector in Bank Securities and Fraud Cell) and Sameer Kumar Singh (stenographer in Bank Securities and Fraud Cell), lawyers Malik and Arvind Kumar Gupta, Mandeep Kaur Dhillon (additional director, Shree Shyam Pulp & Board Mills Pvt Ltd) and Sujai Desai and Udai Desai of Mumbai-based Frost International Pvt Ltd, who allegedly paid the bribe and sought inside information from the CBI.

“The CBI has a zero tolerance policy towards corruption be it other departments or within the organisation,” an official said after the FIR. “It has also been reliably learnt that the details of the investigation of many other cases including confidential notes and directions have been communicated by Sameer Kumar Singh. Steno, to Sangwan and Rishi on pecuniary considerations to protect interests of the accused,” the FIR alleged.