The bribe was ₹3 lakh, the sting had dummy notes, and the man at the centre of it all—Charan Pratap Singh, Deputy Registrar of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Mumbai—has now walked out on bail.
A special CBI court in Mumbai granted Singh bail in a corruption case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, after weighing the facts and deciding further custody would be pointless. The order came on June 13, with the court asking Singh to furnish a personal bond of ₹1 lakh.
Singh had been arrested for allegedly soliciting ₹3.5 lakh—later settled at ₹3 lakh—from a hotelier who had a case pending before NCLT Mumbai’s Court No IV. The complaint stemmed from a 2020 title dispute between the hotel owner and his brothers.
According to the CBI’s version, Singh approached the complainant on May 11 this year, asking for the bribe to “influence” the outcome of the case. A trap was swiftly laid. On May 29, an intermediary was caught red-handed while collecting the money on Singh’s behalf. Singh, however, slipped away and was arrested later. The bribe money included ₹1 lakh in real cash and ₹2 lakh in specially marked dummy notes.
CBI sleuths raided Singh’s known premises in Mumbai and Lucknow soon after.
In granting bail, Special Judge Amit V Kharkar noted that the bribe had been recovered, the investigation against Singh was complete, and he was not considered a flight risk. “Keeping him in custody now serves no useful purpose,” the court observed.
Singh was represented by Advocate SK Saxena. The CBI was represented by Special Public Prosecutors Sandeep Singh and Sandeep Kumar.
