New Delhi: The CBI has arrested a senior IPS officer posted as joint director in the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), in connection with an alleged Rs 3 crore bribery case linked to the agency’s probe into a fake drug manufacturing racket, officials said on Wednesday.
Deepak Gahlawat, a 2012-batch IPS officer of Haryana cadre, was also acting as BCAS regional director at the time of the alleged offence.
He was presented before a special court on Wednesday which sent him to one-day CBI custody, they said.
The premier agency has alleged that Gahlawat demanded a bribe to help a Puducherry-based businessperson get relief in an ongoing CBI probe against him.
The officer allegedly assured the businessperson of a favourable outcome in the probe by using his purported influence over the agency officials in return for the bribe, they said.
“Searches have been conducted at multiple premises linked to the IPS officer and multiple digital devices, hard disks, and documents have been seized,” a CBI spokesperson said.
The arrest stems from an FIR registered by the CBI on June 8 against Delhi Police Crime Branch Inspector Pradeep Singh, alleged middleman Rajkumar and businessman N Raja.
Last month, the agency arrested Singh, Rajkumar and five others in a trap operation, recovering Rs 25 lakh as trap money and another Rs 90 lakh, besides incriminating documents, the spokesperson said.
“During investigation, it was disclosed that the IPS officer had demanded illegal gratification claiming that he could exercise his personal influence and obtain relief for private persons in the cases being investigated by CBI in relation to the sale of counterfeit drugs in Puducherry,” the officer said.
According to officials, Raja was facing a CBI investigation in an alleged fake drug manufacturing case registered earlier this year and got in touch with Singh, who allegedly gave an assurance that he would be able to influence the probe.
In its FIR the CBI alleged that on May 14, Raja and Rajkumar met Singh at Aerocity, near IGI Airport in the national capital, who then “escorted them to the office of an unidentified senior public servant located in the vicinity and introduced them to him.”
The FIR alleged that the officer demanded Rs 3 crore, including an upfront payment of Rs 1.5 crore, in return for a “favourable investigation”.
Raja arranged Rs 1 crore through a hawala transaction, which was allegedly handed over to Singh, who in turn passed on Rs 50 lakh to another middleman, Prabhat, who was known to the suspect public servant, officials said.
“Accused Pradeep Kumar Singh kept the remaining Rs 25 lakh in his office. Thereafter, on June 8, 2026, accused Rajkumar and Pradeep Kumar Singh were apprehended,” an official said.
