Black sheep in CBI

DIG leaked raid info: CBI official
Rajinder Nagarkoti
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 18
The CBI DIG, Mahesh Aggarwal, had allegedly leaked the information of a raid by the Delhi CBI at the residence of former Union Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla in Sector 28. A CBI Inspector posted at the Chandigarh office has levelled these allegations against Mahesh Aggarwal in his affidavit submitted before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).

The CBI Inspector, Balbir Singh, who had challenged his transfer orders, has submitted before the tribunal that DIG Mahesh Aggarwal was allegedly responsible for leaking the information of the CBI's raid at Vijay Singla’s residence on May 3.
Balbir Singh’s affidavit, submitted before the CAT, reads: “The involvement of Respondent no. 3 (which is DIG Mahesh Aggarwal) in the leakage of the trap, which was laid in a case involving Vijay Singla (Railway bribery case), and the raid was delayed by three or four hours and in the meantime, the evidence was destroyed by the Respondent no. 3 (DIG Mahesh Aggarwal), due to his friendship with Vijay Singla”.
Mahesh Aggarwal denied all these allegations and said there were serious complaints against Balbir Singh. Therefore, he was transferred. On the CBI’s raid, he said it was the Delhi CBI’s raid and no information was leaked. More importantly, it was a successful trap. The Delhi CBI has already issued a statement to the media that there was no leak of information in Chandigarh, he added.
Meanwhile, former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Harmohan Dhawan, at a press conference held today, alleged that Mahesh Aggarwal also pressurised the CBI officials to clear the name of MC Joint Commissioner in a corruption case, in which Balraj Singh, a patwari of the Municipal Corporation, was arrested on February 13 this year while allegedly accepting illegal gratification.
The CBI officer, Balbir Singh, who was also part of the raiding team, has also stated before CAT that he was transferred as he did not yield to pressure by Mahesh Aggarwal, who wanted to exclude the name of MC Joint Commissioner Rajiv Gupta, who is either related or known to Mahesh Aggarwal, from the patwari graft case.
In this case, the CBI has filed a chargesheet in the CBI court against Balraj Singh. The CBI gave a clean chit to Rajiv Gupta, as there was no evidence against him.
Gupta said the complainant's case file pertaining to the demand of illegal gratification had never reached him. Patwari had named him just because he wanted to increase the amount of bribe. There was no evidence against him, Gupta added.