Anand Joshi was arrested from west Delhi on May 15. (File photo)
A special court today asked the CBI to file its response by tomorrow on the bail plea of a Home Ministry official, arrested for allegedly issuing FCRA notices arbitrarily to several NGOs for financial gains.
Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar put up the matter for hearing tomorrow and extended the judicial custody of accused Anand Joshi, an under secretary in the Home Ministry, till June 17.
The accused, who was produced before the court from his judicial custody, moved the bail application on the ground that his custody was not required in the case and should be granted the relief.
Earlier, the court had sent Mr Joshi, who was arrested from west Delhi on May 15, to jail after the CBI submitted that his further custodial interrogation was not required in the case.
CBI had earlier claimed that files relating to several NGOs had gone missing from Home Ministry and they were recovered from his house although he was not supposed to take them away.
It had alleged that Joshi had been issuing notices dishonestly to a large number of NGOs/societies registered under the FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) 2010, which have been receiving significant amount of foreign contributions, in an arbitrary manner.
The CBI had said some of these organisations were Care India, Snehalya Charitable Trust, Indian HIV/AIDS Alliance and All India Primary Teachers Federation and alleged that representatives of some of these organisations were called and Joshi had demanded and obtained illegal gratification.
Mr Joshi was arrested on May 15 after he allegedly gave unconvincing answers to the questions posed by a team of Special Crime division of the CBI, including those related to disappearance of files on Sabrang Trust of activist Teesta Setalvad.
Mr Joshi, who had disappeared from his home in Indirapuram in Ghaziabad, was picked up from Tilak Nagar area of West Delhi and taken to the CBI headquarters for questioning. Subsequently, he was arrested by the agency.