Bhubaneswar: A Special CBI Court has rejected the bail plea of Chintan Raghuvanshi, Deputy Director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), who was arrested on bribery charges in Bhubaneswar.
Raghuvanshi, a 2013-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, was caught red-handed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) while allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹20 lakh. The arrest took place in the Sahid Nagar area, following a sting operation based on a complaint by a Dhenkanal-based mining trader.
The complainant, Rohit Ranjan Rout, alleged that Raghuvanshi initially demanded ₹5 crore to “settle” a case against him. When Rout refused, the demand was reportedly reduced to ₹2 crore. Subsequently, the CBI laid a trap and apprehended Raghuvanshi during the first tranche of the alleged payoff.
Sources indicate that this was not an isolated incident, and the ED officer had allegedly received bribes on multiple occasions through a middleman. During interrogation, Raghuvanshi was unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for possessing the cash, prompting the CBI to place him under formal arrest.
The Special CBI Court found sufficient prima facie evidence to deny bail, and investigations into the wider network of corruption are currently underway.
