The probe into the bribery case against Buta Singh’s son Sarabjot Singh received a boost after an alleged hawala dealer from Bangalore, believed to be the key link in the events that led to Sarabjot’s arrest last month, placed himself at the disposal of a CBI court in Mumbai on Wednesday.

CBI sources said 38-year-old Sanwla Singh Patel — a “big time” operator whom investigators had been hunting — has not been booked yet. The court has asked Patel to visit the CBI office in Mumbai every day until September 10.

According to sources, phonetaps show Patel was the man Sarabjot alias Sweety first called to have the alleged bribe of Rs 1 crore collected from Nashik-based contractor Ramarao Patil in July last week. Sweety was then in Delhi, and Patel, then in Bangalore, asked two other hawala dealers, Madan Singh and Dhunka Singh, to collect the money from Patil in Mumbai.

The CBI was by then already on Sweety’s trail — having put his phones under surveillance after Ramarao Patil went to the agency to complain Sweety had offered to ‘fix’ a case against him at the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), where his father Buta Singh is Chairman, in exchange for a hefty payoff.

It is learnt Sanwla Singh Patel’s transactions are already under the Enforcement Directorate’s scanner. A CBI officer who declined to be named told The Indian Express, “Patel’s hawala links are being probed by the ED. But the fact that his call details match with those of Sarabjot, has a lot of significance in our case.”

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