New Delhi, May 9: A court here on Wednesday rejected the CBI's plea for additional custody of senior journalist Upendra Rai, arrested for dubious transactions in his accounts, and sent him to 14-day judicial custody.

Rai was presented before Special Judge Santosh Snehi Mann who rejected the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea seeking extension of his custodial interrogation and remanded him to judicial custody till May 23.

Owner of Printlines Media Group and formerly employed with Tehelka, Rai was arrested for dubious transactions in his accounts to the tune of over Rs 100 crore during 2017-2018.

He is also accused of using false information to obtain a pass to access sensitive areas in airports across the country and is alleged to have committed the offence in connivance with the officials of aviation company Air One Aviation Pvt Ltd and some public servants of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).

The CBI filed an FIR on Tuesday naming Upendra Rai, Air One Aviation Pvt Ltd, its Chief Security Officer Prasun Roy, some unidentified public servants of BCAS and others.

Rai, Roy, some public servants and other private persons were questioned by the CBI at its headquarters here, a CBI official said.

The CBI found that in 2017, Rai's bank accounts show credit of Rs 79 crore with several transactions of over Rs one lakh each while in the same period the accounts reflect debit amount of Rs 78.51 crore.

 

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Ahmedabad (PTI): The Ahmedabad police have arrested a 29-year-old man who allegedly posed as a senior revenue official and used fake letters claiming to be from various government departments to cheat people, an official said on Sunday.

Mehul Shah, an engineer who manages two schools at Vankaner in Gujarat’s Morbi district, is accused of making lakhs of rupees with bogus documents and false claims, said inspector (crime branch) JK Makwana.

Shah had forged an appointment letter from the Ahmedabad district education officer (DEO) to offer a computer operator’s job in a government office to a complainant’s son. He also introduced himself as a trustee of a school and did not pay a man Rs 7 lakh due to him over the painting of a school building, the official said.

“Despite holding no official position in the state or central government, he used fake work permits and NOCs to cheat people of lakhs of rupees,” the police official said.

One complainant alleged that Shah identified himself as a top revenue department official and produced a fake letter from the chairman of the “department of science and research development” to make him install a siren and curtain in a hired vehicle but did not pay for the job, he said.

Bogus letters claiming to be from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ahmedabad DEO were used by the accused to cheat the complainants, the police official said.

Police have recovered from his possession fake identity cards and letters with headings like “bharat gaurav ratna shri samman council”, “chairman of department of science and research development”, “health and family welfare department”, and “road and building department”.

“The FIR is based on complaints by three victims. We appeal to the people to come forward and submit their complaints if they have been cheated by Shah in any way,” Makwana said.