Kolkata, May 6 The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday arrested an Inspector General of the CRPF along with a commandant of the force for alleged corruption and bungling in the recruitment of personnel for the anti-naxal force COBRA.

According to sources, the CBI made several arrests after conducting searches at 20 locations spread across Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab in connection with the scam.

The alleged kingpins of the scam, IG Bihar Pushkar Singh, commandant Yajbinder Singh and CRPF constable Mukesh Kumar, were arrested in Bihar and Jharkhand

The CBI had allegedly recovered over 23 lakh rupees from Pushkar Singh's residence on Tuesday during a search.

Others arrested include Kumar's wife Swati and four other touts, they said, alleging that another 70 lakh rupees were recovered from the possession of Swati.

The agency reportedly recovered documents of immovable properties and papers relating to accounts of payments and records of various aspirants.

The CBI said the touts use to allegedly contact the aspirants and assure them of a job in exchange for huge sums of money.

A CBI spokesperson said the alleged conspiracy was being executed by a network of touts spread across the five states, who had contacts with senior officials of the force.

Earlier, the CBI had arrested the force's DIG in Lucknow, a head constable and a tout, who were following a similar modus operandi.

In the scam, if a candidate was not selected even after the full payment, the money was given back by the touts.

The CBI is closely monitoring the recruitment process of the paramilitary force after its former Director General V K Joshi wrote to the agency last year to do so to check any misconduct. (ANI)