Chandigarh, May 13 -- In a late night raid at the Punjab Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau headquarters in Mohali and a subsequent high-end chase, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested two middlemen and one other individual in connection with a Rs.20-lakh bribery case involving senior officials of the department, officials said on Tuesday. According to CBI, inspector OP Rana, the reader to chief director of Vigilance Bureau and special DGP Sharad Satya Chauhan, has been identified as the central figure behind an extortion racket, who allegedly leveraged his proximity to the bureau's senior officials. "...it was alleged that both the accused were acting as intermediaries for senior Vigilance officials including the Reader to DGP Vigilance, Punjab and were using their influence to assure the complainant that his matter could be settled," a CBI spokesperson said in a statement. The case pertains to a complaint given by a Punjab state tax officer to CBI last week, who alleged that middleman Vikas Goyal alias Vicky and his son, Raghav Goyal, demanded the bribe to quash a complaint pending against him within the Vigilance director general's office. During a sting operation conducted in Chandigarh on Monday, CBI apprehended Ankit Wadhwa. Raghav Goyal, Vikas Goyal, and Rana managed to flee the initial trap after being tipped off by surveillance gunmen. A subsequent chase by CBI teams led to the capture of the Goyals and two gunmen near Ambala, though Rana managed to evade arrest and is still absconding. Raids conducted on properties in Malout and Chandigarh yielded an additional Rs.9 lakh in cash along with incriminating documents that point toward a deeper conspiracy. The three accused were produced before a Chandigarh court. Goyals were granted three-day police remand, the third accused has been sent to judicial custody....