The CBI had filed a corruption case against JP Singh in February 2015. (Representational)
The Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI has sought sanction from the Finance Ministry to prosecute former Enforcement Directorate (ED) Joint Director JP Singh, who has been accused of receiving bribes in the IPL betting case and from hawala operators.
"We approached the Ministry of Finance for prosecution sanction against JP Singh in December 2019; the final report is ready, once the sanction is accorded, a supplementary charge-sheet will be filed in this case," sources in the CBI told NDTV.
In 2015, a case for corruption in connection with the Rs 2,000 crore IPL money laundering case was filed against JP Singh, who was the then Joint Directorate of the probe agency.
He was arrested by the CBI in connection with the case in February 2017 and at present he is out on bail granted by the Gujarat High Court on July 1, 2017.
Mr Singh as the Joint Director of the ED was heading the probe into the multi crore IPL betting case.
Advocate Amit Nair, who is representing JP Singh, has told NDTV, "the CBI had filed a charge-sheet in the IPL betting case in 2017 but the agency couldn't prove money trail leading to Mr Singh. If the CBI files another charge-sheet, we will prove our case before the court of law."
The CBI had filed a charge-sheet against JP Singh and nine others in September 2017 after getting prosecution sanction from the Ministry of Finance charging them with corruption and criminal conspiracy charges for demanding and accepting huge amounts as bribe from those who were being investigated by the ED in connection with the 2015 IPL betting case. The trial is underway in the CBI court.
Apart from the IPL betting case, JP Singh was also accused of accepting bribes from Afroz Fatta, a diamond trader, who is being investigated by the ED in connection with a Rs 5,395 crore hawala scam.
The ED had busted the multi crore hawala racket during their search operations in Surat-based offices of some diamond traders including Mr Fatta and Madanlal Jain in 2014.
"After filing charge-sheet in the IPL betting bribery case, the agency continued its probe on other allegations against Mr Singh. Further probe has revealed that Mr Singh had demanded and accepted a bribe from hawala operator Afroz Fatta to help them in the money laundering case in 2015," the sources said.
"Digital evidence seized from the premises of JP Singh during searches have revealed that Mr Singh through his conduits had received huge amount as bribe in multiple transactions from the hawala operators and those who had 'paid' Mr Singh were never raided or summoned for questioning," they added.