New Delhi (India) [India], January 3 (HBTV): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against its own officer and conducted searches, recovering INR 55 lakh in cash, an official claimed on Thursday.

According to the officials, the CBI registered a case against its own deputy superintendent of police on allegations of obtaining undue advantage from different individuals who were within the scope of the investigation being conducted by him.

'The accused public servant was utilising the services of different middlemen for transacting the bribe money through a web of accounts and hawala channels,' the official said.

The CBI conducted searches at 20 different locations, including Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, and New Delhi. These searches led to the recovery of cash worth INR 55 lakh, which had been routed through a hawala channel. Additionally, property papers indicating investments worth INR 1.78 crore and book entries showing transactions worth INR 1.63 crore were recovered, along with other incriminating documents, according to the officials. Further investigation is underway.

On December 31, the CBI Court had sentenced two accused, including Rayabharapu Venkata Lakshmi (RVL) Narasimha Rao, a retired Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise & Customs (IRS Officer) from Kakinada, East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, and his wife Rayabharapu Gowri Ratnam, to three years of imprisonment with a total fine of INR 2 lakh in a disproportionate assets case, according to a press release from the CBI on Monday.

The CBI had registered the instant case against the accused. It was alleged that during the check period from July 1, 2007, to August 4, 2011, Narasimha Rao, while working as a public servant with the Department of Customs, had movable and immovable properties in his name and in his wife’s name, disproportionate to his known sources of income, amounting to approximately INR 31.20 lakh (71.81% of his declared assets), which he could not satisfactorily account for. The release stated that Gowri Ratnam, by allowing her husband to acquire assets in her name beyond her pecuniary resources, abetted the commission of the offence.

The Special Judge Court for CBI Cases, Visakhapatnam, ordered the CBI to initiate appropriate proceedings to confiscate properties equal to the disproportionate assets, amounting to approximately INR 27.57 lakh, as per the release.

(ANI)