Delhi Dental Council officials arrested on bribery charges

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a Registrar and a lawyer of Delhi Dental Council in an alleged bribery case of approximately Rs 4,73,000. The accused Registrar Dr Rishi Raj and Advocate N Pradeep Sharma were produced in Delhi's Competent Court and remanded to four days of police custody. Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Kumar Jain has also come under the scanner after relevant documents in his name were recovered during the raid by the CBI at the residence and office of the Registrar on Sunday.

The CBI registered a case under Sections 7 (illegal gratification taken by public servant) and 8 (taking illegal gratification to influence public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), after a dentist filed a complaint alleging the accused demanded a bribe of Rs 4.73 lakhs in return for favourable order from the council and for extending help in further legal proceedings in his matter. Acting upon the complaint, the investigative agency laid a trap and caught the accused while demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs. 4.73 lakh from the complainant.

During the raids, around Rs 24 lakh in cash and a half kg of gold were recovered along with alleged documents relating to the Health Minister. The documents recovered are of three properties, including two sale deeds and one Power of Attorney (POA) of land properties in Delhi's Karala Village. In addition, one deposit slip book of IDBI Bank was recovered that contained counterfoils detailing cheque deposits of approximately Rs 2 crores during the year 2011, in the name of Jain, his family members as well as in the name of the companies wherein he was serving as Director. Forty-one chequebooks in the name of Jain, his wife, and in the name of a private estate firm were also recovered. Further investigation is underway.

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