Never questioned Bansal’s wife or daughter, says CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has reportedly given a clean chit to its officials accused of harassing the family of additional secretary-rank officer in the ministry of corporate affairs B.K. Bansal, who along with his son committed suicide after his wife and daughter hanged themselves to death in their East Delhi’s Madhu Vihar area.

In its 90-page report to the Delhi police in connection with the controversial suicides, the CBI said that it had never ever questioned Bansal’s wife and daughter while probing an alleged bribery case against him. The Delhi police, which is conducting inquest proceedings in connection with these suicides, had asked the CBI to submit a detailed account of the investigations it had carried out in the bribery case. Bansal was arrested by CBI on July 16 for allegedly accepting bribe from a prominent pharmaceutical company.

The case hit the headlines after the police found suicide notes in which both Bansal and his son Yogesh had blamed the CBI directly for harassing their family. Bansal had even accused some senior CBI officials of abusing and torturing his wife and daughter. He had alleged that a CBI deputy inspector general Sanjeev Gautam had claimed that he was close to a politician of the ruling party leader and dared the senior bureaucrat to do whatever he wanted. In his seven-page suicide note, Bansal had stated: “I am committing suicide because of CBI. On intervening night of July 18 and July 19, CBI female officers Rekha Sangwan and Amrita Kaur severely tortured my wife and daughter, which they shared with neighbours and friends. They slapped and beat my wife and daughter, abused them. They used to pinch them with nails. A fat constable misbehaved with them and harassed them.” A source said that the CBI has told the police that it had never ever questioned Bansal’s wife and daughter. The investigating agency, however, said it had twice questioned Bansal’s son in connection with the bribery case. “The CBI report gives complete breakup of timings when and how Bansal was questioned. It has also given details about the type of food the bureaucrat was served during investigation. The report gives the complete account of people with whom Bansal was confronted with by the probe agency.”

Preliminary investigations by the police has revealed that Bansal and his son were under extreme depression.