CBI special court convicts ED officer for accepting bribe

Bengaluru: The CBI special court on Friday convicted a former Directorate of Enforcement (ED) officer for demanding and accepting the bribe. Special Court Judge Manjunath Sangreshi sentenced the convict Lalith Bazad to undergo simple imprisonment for three years and to pay the fine of Rs 5.50 lakh to the government.

The CBI case was that in February 2021, Lalith Bazad, who was then an Enforcement Officer with the ED on deputation from Central Goods and Service Tax and Central Excise, Chennai, had issued summons to the complainant Nikhil Innani, the Director of Apollo Finvest Pvt. Ltd. company, Mumbai. The summons was in respect of an investigation into the alleged Chinese loan scam.

The ED official told Nikhil that the crime was registered against the company by the Cyber Crime Police in Hyderabad. The accused also threatened Nikhil that the accounts of the company will be frozen and demanded a bribe of Rs five lakh to close the case.

Under pressure and also out of fear that the business will be harmed, Nikhil asked his cousin Harish Innani to arrange the money in Bengaluru. On February 9, 2021, the money was delivered to Lalith Bazad through a staff of Levels Pub and Kitchen in JP Nagar in Bengaluru in the pub itself.

On December 20, 2021, the CBI filed a chargesheet before the CBI Special court along with documents, including the CCTV footage of the pub, which recorded every movement of the accused. The special court, after perusing the evidence, including the CCTV footage produced by the CBI, held that the accused misused his official position as Enforcement Officer and accepted the bribe by threatening the complainant. Shivananda Perla, Senior Public Prosecutor, had argued the matter on behalf of CBI.