CBI arrests two SC advocates on charges of bribery

NEW DELHI: The CBI has arrested two senior advocates of the Supreme Court for allegedly accepting bribe for granting affiliation to a Ghaziabad-based Law College.

Rajendra Singh Rana and Manish Tyagi, who are senior lawyers at the apex court, were arrested from Pitampura in North Delhi yesterday, CBI sources said.

The CBI had been monitoring the telephone calls of Rana and swooped on his residence in Pitampura late in the evening when Tyagi had arrived there with the file of the law college.

The agency claimed to have recovered over Rs one lakh from his residence before arresting them. Simultaneous searches were also carried out at seven places in and around Delhi including the law college in Ghaziabad, the sources said.

Speaking to PTI from CBI custody, Rana alleged that the agency was deliberately trying to trap him.

While he claimed that both of them had been brought to the CBI headquarters for questioning and were only detained, agency sources maintained they had been arrested and a case of bribery registered against them.

A law college has to get affiliated to the Bar Council of India to become functional.

Rana was first elected to the state Bar Council of Delhi in 1998 where he became Vice Chairman in 2000. In 2010, he was elected to the Bar Council of India, according to the website of the BCI. Tyagi is on the advisory board of Global College of Law.