The wife and daughter of Director General (DG) of Corporate Affairs (CA) in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs BK Bansal were found dead in their home on Tuesday afternoon, with the police suspecting they had committed suicide. Bansal was earlier arrested, along with four others, by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a bribery case that allegedly included siphoning off lakhs of cash.
Bansal's wife and daughter are said to have hung themselves to death at their Madhu Vihar residence in New Delhi on Tuesday. Two suicide notes have been found from the premises, which the police are currently scrutinising.
The CBI said in a statement on Sunday, July 17, that it arrested Bansal and "three private persons, including a Delhi-based middleman, in an alleged bribery case of Rs. 9 lakh."
The arrests had been made after the probe agency conducted searches in eight premises — six in New Delhi and two in Mumbai — belonging to the four accused. The searches had yielded Rs. 56.2 lakh cash from Bansal and Rs. 16 lakh cash from the Delhi-based middleman who was arrested with him, according to the CBI.
Several incriminating documents, "including [those of] properties and bank accounts, [were] recovered during searches from the premises of accused persons," are currently being scrutinised, the probe agency said.
It also stated in the statement that cases under relevant sections of the law have been registered against Bansal on "allegations that the Director General of Corporate Affairs had been dealing with matters related to certain violations committed by a pharmaceutical company of Mumbai," something a senior official of the Ministry of Corporate affairs had detected.
Describing the collusion between the different parties, the CBI said: "The COO of the Mumbai-based company had allegedly sought the assistance of a Delhi-based middleman who was also working as their distributor in Delhi. The Director General, Corporate Affairs, allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs. 50 lakh for not recommending investigation by the SFIO [Serious Fraud Investigation Office] on the inspection report and finally, the Delhi-based middleman negotiated Rs. 20 lakh."
The probe agency added: "The accused officer had earlier allegedly accepted Rs. 11 lakh and was demanding the balance amount of Rs. 9 lakh. The CBI laid a trap and the accused officer was caught red-handed while accepting an alleged bribe of Rs. 9 lakh outside a hotel in New Delhi. The Delhi-based middleman was also caught."
