The owner of a Rajasthan-based advertising agency today surrendered in a court here in connection with a multi-crore government advertisement scam.
Ajay Chopra, the owner of Crayons advertising agency, was directed by the Supreme Court to surrender in a local court after his anticipatory bail applications were rejected by the Rajasthan High Court and the Supreme Court recently.
“He was subsequently arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau,” public prosecutor B S Chauhan said. The ACB had registered the case against him over his role in issuing government advertisements worth around Rs 3 crore to a few advertisement agencies during the previous Congress regime from 2008-13.
Five separate cases were registered against Chopra in connection with the alleged corruption. Although he surrendered in all five cases, the ACB arrested him in connection with only one of these cases.
On the basis of a complaint by Shankar Lal Gurjar, the FIRs were registered in 2014 under several sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Apart from Chopra, the ACB had also lodged FIRs against the officials of Directorate of Information and Public Relations, Directorate of Local Bodies, and Bureau of Promotion and Investment Department, and another advertising agency’s person Amit Gupta (Unison).
The ACB court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him last July as he went underground.