CBI grills probe officer in graft case

Ferozepur : A CBI team raided the office-cum-official residence of Ferozepur Zone Inspector General (IG) Gurinder Singh Dhillon late on Thursday, even as the investigating agency arrested a Ludhiana resident for accepting bribe allegedly on the IG’s behalf. An SIT headed by Dhillon is probing the 2012 patwari frame-up case, in which ex-SSP Shiv Kumar Sharma and five other cops are the accused. The raids were conducted in Ferozepur and Patiala following Sharma’s complaint.Sources said a four-member team swooped down on the IG’s office here and questioned him about the ongoing investigation. Based on the interrogation, the CBI laid a trap and arrested alleged middleman Ashok Goyal in Ludhiana.In the complaint dated August 13, Sharma had accused Goyal of demanding a bribe of Rs 22 lakh on Dhillon’s behalf to settle the case. He claimed to have paid Rs 5 lakh to Goyal on August 9 at a hotel in Chandigarh. “Searches at the middleman’s house led to the recovery of Rs 5 lakh, the first instalment of the bribe taken in Chandigarh,” the CBI said in a statement.The CBI sleuths reached here at 7:30 pm. Accompanied by local police officials, they went to the IG’s official residence. They stayed till around 4:30 am on Friday before going back to Chandigarh. The team took away documents related to the investigation into the patwari Mohan Singh case. Dhillon reportedly told the CBI sleuths that he had no link with the arrested person. Later, talking to mediapersons, he said attempts were being made to put him under pressure and sabotage the ongoing investigation.