On June 8, the CBI had registered an FIR against Raja, Pradeep Kumar Singh, an inspector with the Delhi Police Crime Branch’s Southern Range, and Rajkumar alias Madhanraj, who allegedly acted as an intermediary.

Among others, the FIR also mentions an unidentified public servant . “Raja had allegedly arranged a bribe of Rs 1 crore through hawala transaction. Pradeep Kumar Singh received the payment through a hawala operator and gave it to one Prabhat, who knew an IPS officer. Singh kept Rs 25 lakh in his house… CBI had arrested Singh and Rajkumar with Rs 24.70 lakh,” the central agency said.

The amount was the first instalment of a larger payoff, according to CBI. A source said that according to the FIR, Singh allegedly conspired with other accused, and indulged in corrupt activities by facilitating the payment of illegal gratification to secure undue relief in the CBI cases.

He also claimed he had influence over investigating officers and other public servants connected with the probe. “After the registration of the fresh FIR, Raja started looking for a source in the CBI and met Inspector Singh, who assured him that he could secure major relief in the CBI case through his contacts. He was told that his senior officer would help him and would charge a fee for doing so,” an officer said.

According to the FIR, Raja and Rajkumar met Singh at Aerocity near Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on May 14. “Singh allegedly escorted both of them to the office of an unidentified senior public servant located in the vicinity and introduced them to him. During the meeting, the senior public servant allegedly assured Raja that favourable relief in the CBI cases could be secured through his connections within the agency,” the FIR alleged.

It further alleged that on May 16, Raja told his wife that the public servant had agreed to help in the pending cases in return for Rs 3 crore and had sought an advance of Rs 1.5 crore.

“Raja then allegedly began arranging the money through his contacts. Rajkumar later travelled to Vadodara and met Singh to work out the modalities for delivering the bribe money to public servants in Delhi. After the meeting, both allegedly travelled to Delhi together. Raja asked his wife to keep the money ready, as the advance payment had to be delivered urgently, and contacted a hawala operator in Chennai to transfer Rs 1 crore to Delhi as part of the advance bribe payment,” the FIR read.

It added that the money was to be delivered to Singh in Chandni Chowk on June 8, but they were caught by CBI. Investigators said they had traced how the money moved and found details of the role of each accused in that chain. “ electronic devices recovered from them were also believed to contain incriminating evidence related to the money trail,” the source said.