RK Agrawal before he was sent to jail in Ranchi on Tuesday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, May 14: Jamshedpur-based industrialist Raj Kumar Agrawal, prime accused in the 2012 Rajya Sabha polls horse-trading case, was arrested today by the CBI and sent for 14 days to Birsa Munda Central Jail, his trademark thumbs-up and smile missing for once.

Agrawal’s arrest from the capital’s Kutchery Chowk was indeed dramatic. A plainclothes CBI team from the anti-corruption branch pounced on Agrawal around 12.45pm, just when he realised he was being tracked and tried to dodge the four officers by slipping into the premises of a lower court.

Agrawal, who reached Ranchi yesterday evening from Jamshedpur, was alone and apparently on his way to meet his lawyer whose name he has not yet revealed.

Perhaps the dodging days of Agrawal, an Independent candidate in the countermanded RS polls of March 30 2012, Adityapur industrialist — he owns Hi-Tech Industries Pvt. Ltd, a chemicals-manufacturing firm — and Bistupur mall developer, Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) president and “high-visibility” social worker are finally over.

Investigating officer of the case, CBI DSP Ajay Kumar Jha, who led the team that arrested Agrawal, said he was produced before a CBI special court headed by R.K. Chaudhary and sent on 14 days’ judicial custody.

His cellphone has been seized and a flight ticket to a South African city via Calcutta and Dubai recovered, but it is not clear if he was planning to flee the country.

As recently as on April 10, Agrawal, on getting bail, had flashed a victory sign before a battery of mediapersons at the lower court of Yashwant Prakash. The CBI arrested him after it managed to get his bail cancelled from the agency’s court on May 7, arguing the lower court had granted him reprieve by ignoring concrete evidence.

Agrawal had secured bail from Prakash’s court on rather flimsy grounds that he was not named an accused in the case related to the Rs 2.15-crore cash seizure by Ranchi police and income tax department from an SUV owned by his brother Suresh, hours before the poll in Namkum on capital outskirts.

Police in its FIR under IPC sections 171F (influencing elections using unfair means) and 188 (for flouting orders promulgated by a public servant) had named three persons. They were Agrawal’s son-in-law and Shah Sponge and Power Limited owner Saumitra Shah, employee Sudhanshu Tripathy and driver Nanku Ram.

Jharkhand High Court directed CBI to take over the case in April 2012. The CBI anti-corruption branch FIR, RC 2(S)/12, on April 19, 2012, was a copy of the one filed by Namkum police.

None of the bailable or non-bailable sections of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act was invoked.

As late as on April 11, 2013, the CBI moved court to add sections 7, 8 and 12 of the PC Act, dealing with bribe involving a public servant in exchange of undue favours. This was a day after Agrawal got bail.

After nationwide raids and interrogation, the CBI now claims to have evidence against Agrawal, another Independent candidate Pawan Kumar Dhoot, many MLAs and their aides in the cash-for-vote scam.

With high court monitoring the probe, CBI is likely to file a chargesheet by May-end. “The arrest is a start, more will follow. The CBI has speeded up the process of seeking sanctions from the Assembly Speaker to prosecute MLAs. MLAs including Sita Soren and Paulus Surin, are under CBI glare,” a source added.