IAS officer Anil Ramod ‘habitual offender’, has acquired huge wealth, CBI tells court in bribery case

The CBI allegedly caught him red-handed on Friday while accepting a Rs 8 lakh bribe to award higher land-acquisition compensation.

According to the CBI, Ramod kept the complainant’s cases pending and demanded a bribe of 10 per cent of the hike in compensation sought by the farmers. (FILE)

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The CBI told a Pune special court on Saturday that additional divisional commissioner Anil Ganpatrao Ramod, arrested in a bribery case, was a “habitual offender” and had acquired huge immovable assets and cash.

The IAS officer, who is also the land acquisition arbitrator for Pune, Satara and Solapur districts under the National Highways Act, was remanded in CBI custody by special judge A S Waghmare till June 13 for further investigation.

“The amount recovered from the residence as well as the office of the accused is huge. Therefore, the possibility of involvement of the present accused in such adoptive practice cannot be ruled out…” the judge said.

The CBI allegedly caught him red-handed at his office on Friday while accepting a Rs 8 lakh bribe to award higher compensation to farmers whose land is being acquired for highway projects.

The complaint was filed on May 10 by a lawyer who represents several farmers from Satara and Solapur in matters related to land acquisition. The farmers have been seeking higher compensation, officials said.

According to the CBI, Ramod kept the complainant’s cases pending and demanded a bribe of 10 per cent of the hike in compensation sought by the farmers. Ramod allegedly demanded Rs 10 lakh for the increased compensation of around Rs 1.25 crore and finally settled for a Rs 8 lakh bribe. The CBI then laid a trap and allegedly caught Ramod red-handed while accepting the bribe.

The CBI’s additional superintendent of police Ismail Pendhari sought Ramod’s custody for five days. The investigative agency told the court that the IAS officer was a “habitual offender and has acquired huge immovable assets and huge cash, which needs to be further probed for their source”.

CBI counsel Abhay Arikar submitted that during searches, Rs 1.26 lakh was recovered from Ramod’s office. Also, Rs 6.64 crore and important documents were recovered during searches at his home in Baner, he further submitted.

The CBI stated that “incriminating documents” were seized during a search at the office of M/S Vedalaxmi Developers Designers Private Limited in Baner, which is registered in the name of Ramod’s wife. “It is required to be ascertained if the accused has parked his illegal assets or cash anywhere else,” the CBI said.

The CBI also submitted that Ramod needed to be “interrogated on the point of his modus operandi while giving orders in arbitration matters under the National Highways Act 1956 and whether anybody else is also involved in the crime and whether there are any other cases in which he has used the same modus operandi”.

The CBI told the court it also wanted to collect Ramod’s “voice specimen” for investigation purposes.