New Delhi: A court Thursday dismissed CBI’s plea for further police custody of IPS officer Deepak Gehlawat in the Rs 3-crore bribery case linked to the alleged Rs 5,000-crore fake medicine manufacturing racket. The agency is “totally silent with regard to the steps taken in investigation” to ascertain the identity of the public servant whom Gehlawat was allegedly trying to influence during the one-day police custody granted earlier, it observed.CBI alleged that Gehlawat gave evasive replies about transactions, including Rs 26 lakh received from co-accused Prabhat Kapoor, and claimed that custodial interrogation was necessary to confront him with the co-accused and identify the public servant he allegedly claimed he could influence. Gehlawat was sent to 14-day judicial custody.Special judge Sushant Changotra rejected CBI’s ground of “unearthing the larger conspiracy”, observing that it was addressed in the July 1 order. “The IO is seeking police custody for finding the purpose and object of transactions which pre-date even the first date of meeting between accused persons,” Changotra observed.The court noted that the “untitled tables” of alleged suspicious transactions “do not contain any entry subsequent to May 14, 2026”, the day Gehlawat allegedly first met the co-accused and demanded the bribe. Other suspicious activities could not be part of the current case, it said.
