- Wednesday, March 12, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
A RACKET promising a seat in the Rajya Sabha or Upper House of the Indian parliament for a whopping Rs 100 crore (£10 million) has been busted by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the NDTV news channel said citing informed sources.
The elite probe agency nabbed the accused just before the money exchanged hands, the sources added, adding that the accused had even offered governorship for up to Rs 100 crore.
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The CBI had been listening to calls via a phone intercept for the last few weeks after zeroing in on the accused, the sources further told NDTV on condition of anonymity.
The report also added that four people have been charged by the CBI and they include, one resident from the state of Maharashtra, one from Karnataka and two from Delhi.
According to the sources, the accused people operated a racket to cheat people by falsely assuring them that they would arrange seats in the Rajya Sabha, governorship or grant appointment as chairperson of government organisations, ministries and departments, the sources added.
“Abhishek Boora conspired with Karmalakar Premkumar Bandgar to use his connections and reach high-level government officials, who could play a pivotal role in such appointments,” a person connected to the probe told NDTV, on condition of anonymity.
The CBI’s first information report said, “Karmalakar Premkumar Bandgar, Mahendra Pal Arora, Md. Alaz Khan and Ravindra Vithal Naik often drop names of the senior bureaucrats and political functionaries for impressing upon the client approaching them for some work either directly or through middleman like Abhishek Boora.”
The NDTV saw the FIR which clearly mentions about the racket promising top political posts to cheat people for up to Rs 100 crore.
Bandgar, who posed as a senior CBI officer, told the other accused, including Mohammed Aijaz Khan, to bring in any kind of work that he can fix in return for a huge sum, the sources added.
“Karmalakar Premkumar Bandgar, falsely personating as senior CBI officer, has been threatening officers posted in police stations for showing favour to some person known to him, for influencing the investigation of ongoing cases,” the FIR states, according to NDTV.
