BackSyndicate Bank case: Court dismisses bail pleas of two accused
A special CBI judge rejected the bail applications of Prakash Industries CMD Ved Prakash Agarwal and former director Vipul Agarwal
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New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday dismissed the bail pleas of Ved Prakash Agarwal, chairman and managing director (CMD) of Prakash Industries Ltd, and its former director Vipul Agarwal, who along with others were arrested in the Syndicate Bank bribery case.
Special CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) judge Swarana Kanta Sharma rejected the bail applications of both the accused, who are currently in judicial custody along with other co-accused, including Syndicate Bank CMD Sudhir Kumar Jain.
During the arguments on the bail applications, advocate Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for both the accused, asserted that the CBI’s case against both his clients was merely on the basis of recorded conversations allegedly intercepted by the agency.
Regarding Vipul Agarwal, the lawyer contended that his client had resigned from the post of director of Prakash Industries on 31 October 2013 and was now nowhere associated with the company.
Countering the contentions of the defence counsel, CBI prosecutor Akshay Gautam said that the probe into the case was still underway and if released on bail at this stage, the accused may try to tamper with the evidence. The accused arrested in the case are in judicial custody till 29 August 29.
On 2 August, the CBI had arrested six accused in connection with the case. The CBI had claimed to have recovered ₹ 21 lakh in cash from Jain’s residence, besides gold worth ₹ 1.68 crore and documents of fixed deposits of up to ₹ 63 lakh.
The CBI has filed two cases against Jain, accusing him of receiving a bribe of ₹ 50 lakh through conduits and abusing his official position to enhance the credit limits of some companies in violation of laid-down procedures.
Bhushan Steel Ltd vice-chairman Neeraj Singal, co-accused in the case, was arrested by the CBI on 7 August, hours after the court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him and an alleged middleman, Purushotam Totlani.
In two FIRs (first information report), the CBI has named Singal, Ved Prakash Agarwal, Vipul Agarwal, Pawan Bansal, Vineet and Puneet Godha (relatives of Jain), Vijay Pahuja, Totlani and Pankaj Bansal.
They have been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act and criminal conspiracy under the IPC (Indian penal code).
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