CBI arrests 4 in Rs 100 crore Rajya Sabha seat racket

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested four people for allegedly running a racket by promising seats in Rajya Sabha and other government organizations for Rs 100 crore. The CBI also conducted raids at seven locations in Delhi, Karnataka, and Maharashtra which led them to the recovery of incriminating documents. Soon after their arrests, all the four accused moved a bail plea which released them on bail. The CBI had been intercepting a few calls which led them to bust the racket. They were cheating people on the pretext of offering them Rajya Sabha seats, governors, or appointments as chairpersons of government organizations, ministries and departments.

Four people have been charged by the CBI. Some of them have been identified as Maharashtra resident Karmalakar Premkumar Bandgar, Karnataka resident Ravindra Vithal Naik, and Delhi residents Mahendra Pal Arora and Abhishek Boora. In the FIR, it has been alleged that Bandgar was posing as a senior CBI officer and flaunting his “connections” with highly placed officials and had asked Boora, Arora, Khan and Naik  to bring any sort of work that he can fix in lieu of payment of huge illegal gratification. They conspired with “the sole ulterior motive of cheating private persons by falsely assuring them for arrangement of seats in Rajya Sabha, appointment as governor, appointment as chairman in different government-run organisations under central government ministries and departments against huge pecuniary consideration,” the FIR alleged.