The CBI has arrested a deputy director-level officer of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) posted in Chennai, a Delhi-based advocate and the advocate’s relative over an alleged ₹1 crore bribe demand linked to an investigation into the DHFL scam. The arrests followed a trap in which the advocate allegedly received ₹20 lakh from the complainant on behalf of the SFIO officer, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The arrested officer has been identified as Harish Kumar Tanwar, a 2017-batch Indian Revenue Service officer currently serving as deputy director of the SFIO in Chennai. The other accused are Bharat Sharma, an advocate based in New Delhi, and Aryan Sharma, identified as a relative of the advocate.
The case began after Gopal Shivram Dalvi submitted a written complaint to the CBI on October 12. According to the FIR cited in the report, Dalvi alleged that Tanwar, Sharma and others demanded ₹1 crore by threatening to arrest and prosecute him in connection with an SFIO investigation into the DHFL scam.
The CBI said it verified the complaint before registering a case on October 13. The agency then laid a trap and arrested the accused after Sharma allegedly accepted ₹20 lakh from Dalvi. The arrests were made in connection with the alleged demand for money to favour the complainant in the ongoing investigation.
The SFIO is a specialised investigation office under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs that handles complex corporate fraud cases. The involvement of an SFIO officer posted in Chennai places the arrests within the wider institutional framework of corporate-law enforcement, although the allegations against the accused will be tested during the investigation and subsequent legal proceedings.
The CBI also searched the premises of Tanwar and the advocate. The agency said it recovered material it described as incriminating and related to the case during the searches. The report did not provide details of the material recovered or indicate whether any other SFIO officials were implicated.
The case has been registered under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita relating to criminal conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The investigation has been entrusted to Shakti Kumar, inspector of police with the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch-III in New Delhi.
The arrests do not establish guilt, and the allegations will be subject to examination through the legal process. The CBI investigation will now focus on the alleged demand, the role of the three accused, the transfer of ₹20 lakh and the material recovered during the searches.
