The CBI has arrested Chhattisgarh IAS officer B.L. Agrawal and two other private persons for helping him in paying Rs 1.5 crore bribe to settle a case being investigated by the agency against him, an official said on Tuesday.

The arrested persons were on Tuesday produced before Patiala House court in Delhi that sent them to five-day Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody.

The CBI on Monday arrested Agrawal, a 1988-batch IAS officer currently posted as the Principal Secretary (Higher Education) in Chhattisgarh government, his brother-in-law Anand Agrawal and a private person Bhagwan Singh, a resident of Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh.

The agency on February 18 registered an FIR against Agrawal, Singh, a Hyderabad-based private person Syed Burhanuddin and others under relevant sections of criminal conspiracy and Prevention of Corruption Act.

The CBI said that the IAS officer had agreed to pay Rs 1.5 crore to Burhanuddin as gratification for helping him in a case being investigated by the agency.

"B.L. Agrawal first approached Singh over the issue, who arranged his meeting with Burhanuddin on February 11 in Delhi. Burhanuddin told the Chhattisgarh officer that he works in the Prime Minister's Office and would easily settle the matter in his favour in lieu of Rs 1.5 crore gratification," a CBI officer said.

The officer said that Burhanuddin also assured Agrawal that he would get the case transferred from the CBI to the Chhattisgarh Economic Offences Wing.  

"The public servant sent an amount of Rs 45 lakh on different dates between February 12 and 16 for its onward transmission through hawala. One Raipur-based hawala operator Sanjay Taparia and others were used as channels for the movement of the amount," said the officer.

The CBI earlier conducted searches on the premises of the accused and hawala operators at Raipur, Hyderabad, Delhi and Greater Noida and recovered Rs 20 lakh.