Nagpur: In the wake of arrest of two high-ranking officials from the Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation (PESO) in Nagpur on charges of accepting bribes, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Nagpur has expanded its scrutiny as it is suspecting the involvement of more senior officials in corrupt practices. More arrests and seizures of sensitive documents are likely in the case, said a local media report.
PESO, headquartered in Nagpur, operates through a network of nine Circle offices and 14 Sub-circle offices, overseeing safety in the manufacturing, storage, transport, and handling of explosives, petroleum, compressed gases, and other hazardous substances and issuing licenses accordingly. The role of officials stationed at the Nagpur headquarters is suspected in the approval, granting, amendment, renewal, and other processes related to various licenses.
According to the report, the CBI has initiated an investigation into the roles of two top ranking and a junior officer, in addition to the officers in custody Ashok Kumar Dalela and Vivek Kumar, both Deputy Chief Controllers of Explosives at PESO. They were apprehended on Thursday in connection with alleged bribe acceptance facilitated by Priyadarshan Dinkar Deshpande, a private person, acting on behalf of these PESO officials.
Devi Singh Kachhawaha, the Director of M/s Super Shivshakti Chemical Pvt Ltd in Rajasthan, was the entity offering the bribes. The report alleged that Dalela and Kumar were operating a corruption racket with the tacit approval of some senior officials within PESO. The CBI is anticipated to quiz these senior officials, as on Friday, officials were in the process of compiling a list of evidences based on the information revealed by the accused during questioning.
The chat and call details of the four, as per the seized cell phones and other technical surveillance, revealed that several other PESO officials were also communicating with the persons named in the case so far. The CBI sleuths were closely monitoring the persons concerned for the last few days before zeroing in on them.
The report stated that CBI teams are conducting searches at several places across Nagpur and at PESO office. The CBI has also come across several incriminating materials and documents in the probe so far, the report said.
CBI had first nabbed Kacchawaha while he was handing over Rs 10 lakh to Dalela for bribing the PESO officials. After the arrest of Kachhawaha and Deshpande, CBI picked up Kumar and Dalela before placing them under arrest. Cash Rs 1.25 crore and gold were recovered from Deshpande’s residence at Hingna T-point while another Rs 88 lakh were recovered from the residence of Vivek Kumar and Rs 2.78 lakh from Dalela. The bribe amount of Rs 10 lakh was also seized.
