CBI arrests Home Ministry undersecretary who was accused of hiding Teesta Setalvad file
Corruption-accused Anand Joshi, who denied all the allegations, was arrested for non-cooperation with the investigation, besides the charges against him.
Corruption-accused undersecretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs Anand Joshi was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday, five days after he went missing. Joshi had been absconding since May 11, the day he was to be questioned by the CBI. On Sunday, he was traced to a relative’s house in West Delhi, The Indian Express reported. He was taken in for questioning at the CBI headquarters around 5 pm and later arrested for not cooperating with investigations, CBI spokesman Devpreet Singh said.
Before he went missing, Joshi had left a note behind for his family, in which he claimed he was being mentally harassed and that he was leaving home in search of peace. Joshi is facing charges of corruption for suspicious dealings with a few NGOs.
The CBI registered a corruption case against Joshi on May 9, alleging that cash worth Rs 7.5 lakh and “incriminating documents” were recovered in the raids they conducted in four locations, including Joshi’s home and office. The files were from the ministries of home affairs and information and broadcasting,
Moreover, Joshi reportedly had access to files related to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act and is accused of accepting bribes to acquire clearances under it. In this regard, he is accused of being in illegal possession of a file related to activist Teesta Setalvad’s NGO Sabrang Trust, which allegedly accepted $290,000 (approximately Rs 1.95 crore) from the US-based Ford Foundation without begin registered under the Act. Setalvad is the secretary of the anti-communal violence NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace, which has been fighting on behalf of the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Joshi denied the allegations. He said he was offered around Rs 200-250 crore to remove Ford Foundation from a blacklist, and while he did not take the bribe, he was pressured by his seniors in the ministry to give the organisation a clean chit. “...All these allegations of corruption were levelled against me. I never removed the file on Sabrang Trust either,” he had told The Indian Express.
