31 July,2009 08:02 AM IST | | Ketan Ranga
The CBI didn't have to chase Sarabjot Singh alias Sweety Singh, son of Buta Singh former Union home minister and current chairman of the National Commission for SCs and STs to nab him.
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Greed made him walk straight into their trap. After several hours of questioning, Sweety was arrested late last night for possible bribery and hawala transactions.
On July 18, Nashik-based contractor Ramrao Patil approached the CBI with the allegation that Sweety had demanded Rs 1 crore for withdrawal of an atrocities case against him.
The case filed by a group of his Dalit employees, on Buta Singh's instructions, alleged that he had not paid them their wages and had also taken a loan of Rs 10 crore in their names.
Said Patil, "I got in touch with Sweety, who demanded Rs 3 crore to bail me out. He settled for Rs 1 crore, and then I contacted the CBI.
The trap
Singh had instructed Patil to pay the Rs 1 crore to his associate Dr Anup Premkumar Begi, president, Akhil Bhartiya Safai Majdoor Congress, Maharashtra.
On July 29, Patil met Begi at a hotel and handed him the money. He also spoke to Sweety, who was in Delhi,u00a0 over the phone and informed him about the deal. Patil was assured that the case would be withdrawn.
This conversation was tapped and the doctor was arrested by CBI at the hotel after the meeting.
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Yesterday, the CBI picked up Sweety in New Delhi and brought him to Mumbai where he is being quizzed. At 4 am, he was taken to St George Hospital for a medical check-up.
Said Rish Raj Singh, joint director, CBI, "We laid a trap and caught him. There was also a hawala operation, as a few lakhs were to be transferred through hawala."
