ED deputy director arrested in Odisha by CBI on charges of bribery
remanded in 14-day judicial custody
New Delhi/Bhubaneswar, May 30 (PTI): The CBI has arrested Chintan Raghuvanshi, deputy director of the Enforcement Directorate in Odisha, for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from a businessman based in Bhubaneswar, officials said on Friday.
The 2013-batch Indian Revenue Service officer from the Customs and Indirect Tax stream had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 5 crore from businessman Ratikanta Rout for giving him relief in an ongoing ED investigation against him, according to a complaint received by the CBI, which is now a part of the FIR.
During negotiations, the officer allegedly agreed to reduce the amount to Rs 2 crore, with the condition that the first installment of Rs 50 lakh had to be paid to the middleman by Thursday evening, the complaint said.
A CBI team set a trap in Bhubaneswar on Thursday after receiving a complaint from Rout about the bribe payment. When Rout paid Rs 20 lakh, of the total Rs 50 lakh, to the middleman, the team swung into action and arrested the middleman.
Later, Raghuvanshi was also arrested following extensive questioning and produced before a special CBI court on Friday, the officials said.
The ED officer's lawyer, Siddhant Mohanty, said in Bhubaneswar that a special CBI court has remanded Raghuvanshi in judicial custody for 14 days.
"However, his bail petition has not been rejected. It will be heard on June 4," Mohanty said.
Raghuvanshi had allegedly demanded the bribe to settle an ongoing ED investigation against Rout. The ED had registered a case in 2020 against Rout, who has a stone crusher and mining business in Dhenkanal.
The ED had searched his premises in January, followed by a summons to appear for questioning in March, the officials said.
When Rout appeared for questioning at the ED office in Bhubaneswar, Raghuvanshi allegedly called him to his chamber and asked him to meet one Bhaghti to get "relief" in the case, the businessman alleged in the complaint given to the CBI.
Rout had alleged that since then, Bhaghti had been in contact with him, pressuring him over FaceTime to pay Raghuvanshi to settle the matter, according to the FIR.
Bhaghti allegedly met Rout on May 27, where he said that Raghuvanshi had demanded Rs 5 crore for "not attaching his hospital, not arresting him, and settling his case", the FIR said.
Rout expressed his inability to arrange such a large sum, and then Bhagti made him speak to Raghuvanshi, who reduced the demand to Rs 2 crore, with the first installment of Rs 50 lakh to be paid on Thursday evening, it said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
