CBI books its own DSP for amassing illicit assets worth Rs 1.94 Crore

New Delhi: The CBI has booked one of its own DSPs, a recipient of the Union home minister's medal for excellence in investigation, for allegedly amassing illicit assets worth Rs 1.94 crore, three times more than his known sources of income, officials said.

In an FIR registered on Sunday evening, the CBI has named Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Brajesh Kumar, who was earlier posted in the agency's banking, frauds and securities cell unit, Bengaluru, his father Sheo Yogi Singh, who is a retired Patna High Court employee, and mother Lalita Singh, as accused and booked them under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The CBI has alleged that between 2018 and 2021, Kumar amassed assets worth Rs 2.09 crore in his and his parents' name.

Kumar, who was promoted to the rank of DSP in 2017, was one of the 15 Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers who received the Union home minister's medal for excellence in investigation in 2019. The central agency received inputs from sources about the purchase of two apartments in Bengaluru's Prestige Royal Gardens in a span of nine months in 2020, totalling about Rs 1.91 crore, in the name of his parents for which no loan or financial assistance was taken by them, according to the FIR. The CBI has said Kumar's father, a retired assistant registrar of the Patna High Court, receives a pension of Rs 65,000 per month, while his mother is a homemaker.

"Another property has been acquired in the name of his wife Sweety Singh at Subhodaya Laurel in Bengaluru," the officials said. Kumar joined the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as a sub-inspector and was promoted to the rank of DSP in 2017 when he was posted at the banking, frauds and securities cell unit in Bengaluru, which handles high-profile banking fraud cases. He is presently serving in the same capacity at the CBI's Anti-Corruption Branch in Bengaluru. After calculating the income and expenses of the accused, the CBI has alleged that Kumar and his parents were in possession of disproportionate assets worth Rs 1.94 crore, 302 per cent more than their known sources of income, for which they could not provide any satisfactory explanation.