IPS Officer Deepak Gahlawat Arrested in Bribery Case Linked to Counterfeit Drugs Racket
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Deepak Gahlawat, a 2012-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Haryana cadre, on allegations of accepting a bribe of Rs 1 crore in connection with the Puducherry counterfeit medicine racket.
The arrest comes a month after the agency arrested two men, including a Delhi Police inspector, in the same case. Gahlawat, currently serving as a Regional Director with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), allegedly demanded Rs 3 crore from the prime accused, N Raja (also known as Valliappan and Rajasekhar), in the Rs 5,000-crore counterfeit medicine racket. He is accused of claiming he could use his connections within the CBI to obtain relief for Raja.
During a hearing at a Delhi court, Judge Sushant Changotra of Rouse Avenue Court questioned the CBI's investigation into the role of other CBI officers. The judge asked why the agency had not questioned Gahlawat about which CBI officers he intended to influence. The court noted that no effort had been made to ascertain if any public servant in the CBI was approached by Gahlawat. The judge remarked, 'The conduct of the IO in this respect and the responses given by him today are totally unfathomable.'
In court, Gahlawat denied the charges, stating, 'From May to June, I never called any of my acquaintances in CBI. Not a single call. There is not a single penny recovered from my account.' The court granted the CBI one-day custodial interrogation of Gahlawat.
According to a CBI spokesperson, the investigation revealed that Gahlawat had demanded illegal gratification, claiming he could exercise personal influence to obtain relief for private persons in the CBI cases related to counterfeit drugs. The CBI had earlier arrested Delhi Police Inspector Pradeep Kumar Singh and six others, recovering approximately Rs 25 lakh of trap amount and Rs 90 lakh, along with incriminating documents.
The counterfeit medicine manufacturing operation was uncovered last year following raids by the police and the Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) in Puducherry. Massive stocks of fake drugs and raw materials were seized, and Raja was arrested in December.
