The Bombay high court on Tuesday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to file a reply by September 25 after journalist and activist Ketan Tirodkar asked for an amendment in his petition requesting that investigation be carried out by the Special Investigating Team (SIT) in the case where two persons impersonated CBI officers and extorted money from actor and filmmaker Rakesh Roshan.
A division bench of Justice P.V. Hardas and P.N. Deshmukh was hearing Mr Tirodkar’s petition in which he has stated that the two persons — Rajesh Ranjan and Ashwini Kumar — posed as CBI officials and approached Roshan with an offer to settle an inquiry pending against him with the CBI. The petition states that it was suspected that an ex-CBI director with the same name of Ashwini Kumar had connived with some officials and extorted money. The duo was later arrested and it was found that they were imposters.
“Roshan was impressed by the factual knowledge of the case details and the fact that there was evidence against him for the CBI to register a regular case and paid `50 lakh to the imposters,” states the petition.
The petition further states that the agency came under pressure not to interrogate the ex-director Ashwini Kumar and it was also decided by the CBI not to hand over the case to the local police as many skeletons would tumble out of CBI’s closet. Mr Tirodkar has questioned the case against Roshan and why was he tempted to pay the bribe.
The grounds that the activist has cited in petition are — CBI has no jurisdiction to register and investigate cases of cheating under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code even if a Central government servant is involved. The petition further states that Roshan’s case has diluted into a case of
cheating at the instance of superior officers from Delhi.