The main legal point established in the judgment is that the CBI's investigation in a State other than where the case was registered did not require the prior consent of the concerned State government under Section 6 of the DSPE Act, as the actions of the accused in the concerned State were in continuation of the criminal conspiracy entered into in New Delhi and were inseparable from the main criminal conspiracy itself.

S. Muralidhar, J.

The issue

1. An interesting question of law arises in this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution regarding prior sanction having to be taken by the Central Bureau of Investigation (‘CBI’) from the State government in terms of Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (‘DSPE Act’) prior to investigating an offence in the concerned State.

2. The issue arises in the context of the steps taken by the CBI to investigate a case registered as RC No.217/2107/A0004/CBI/ACU-V in New Delhi on 18th February 2017 under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code 1860 (IPC) read with Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (‘PC Act’) against Mr. B.L. Agarwal, Mr. Bhagwan Singh, Mr. O.P. Sharma @ O.P. Singh @ Syed Burhanuddin, and some other unknown persons.

Background facts

3. The background facts are that earlier two cases were registered by the CBI against Mr. B.L. Agarwal, the then Health Secretary and present Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Government of Chhattisgarh (Respondent No.3). The Petitioner is the brother-in-law of Mr. B.L. Agarwal. The two cases registered against Mr. B.L. Agarwal by the CBI were:-

a. RC No. 9(A)/2010/CBI/ACB/Bhilai registered at CBI/ACB/Bhilai on 31st December, 2010 in which charge sheet for commission of offences under Section 120-B read with Sections 419, 466 and 477-A of IPC was filed on 17th November, 2011.

b. RC No. 1(E)/2010/EOU-VII/Delhi registered on 4th January, 2010 for commission of offences under Section 120-B IPC read with Sections 420, 468, 471, 477A IPC and Section 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) PC Act.

4. Not much progress had been made by the CBI to prosecute the above cases. According to the CBI, Mr. Agarwal, an IAS officer of the 1988 batch, had already obtained clearance from Respondent No.3 for his inclusion in the list of IAS officers of the 1988 batch empanelled for Central deputation. However, the pendency of the aforementioned two cases were a stumbling block. Therefore, Mr. B.L. Agarwal wanted CBI to close the cases and refer them to the Economic Offences Wing (‘EOW’) of Respondent No.3.

5. According to the CBI, with a view to getting the above relief, the Petitioner entered into a criminal conspiracy with the co-accused Mr. Bhagwan Singh, a resident of Noida, Uttar Pradesh. In turn, Mr. Singh conveyed the aforementioned issue to the other co-accused Mr. O. P. Sharma who claimed to be working in the Prime Minister’s Office (‘PMO’). Mr. Sharma claimed that he could influence the top officers of all the departments in the Government of India. Mr. Sharma further claimed that he could get the desired relief for Mr. Agarwal from the CBI and assured that the matter would be settled in his favour on payment of an illegal gratification of Rs.1.5 crores to the concerned public servants and the two co-accused, viz. Mr. Singh and Mr. Sharma.

6. In furtherance of the aforementioned conspiracy, Mr. B.L. Agarwal is stated to have met Mr. Singh on 11th February 2017 at Hotel Claridges, New Delhi. He is also stated to have met Mr. Sharma with Mr. Singh at Hotel Saravana Bhavan, New Delhi on the same date to discuss “modalities of payment of illegal gratification”. Mr. B. L. Agarwal is stated to have agreed to pay the aforementioned amount as illegal gratification and further thereto, he sent Rs.40 lakhs to Delhi for Mr. Singh through hawala agents in three

instalments. Two instalments of Rs.15 lakhs each were sent on 12th February 2017 and 14th February 2017 respectively. The third instalment of Rs.10 lakhs was sent on 16th February 2017. According to the CBI, out of the aforementioned sum of Rs.40 lakhs sent by Mr. B. L. Agarwal, Mr. Singh received Rs.20 lakhs on 16th February 2017 in Delhi.

7. The case of the CBI is that Mr. B.L. Agarwal expressed difficulty in arranging cash for the balance amount of the total agreed upon sum