Syndicate Bank CMD, Bhushan steel MD sent to police custody

Published: Saturday, August 9, 2014, 10:33 [IST]

Syndicate Bank CMD, Bhushan steel MD sent to police custody

A Delhi court on Friday sent Syndicate Bank Chief Managing Director (CMD) Sudhir Kumar Jain and Bhushan Steel Ltd. Vice chairman and managing director Neeraj Singal to police custody till August 12 in a bribery case.

Justifying the decision to send them to police custody, special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma said the trail and source of the alleged bribe amount is yet to be found out and the person who had carried the amount from Delhi to Bhopal on behalf of Neeraj Singal is yet to be traced.

"In my opinion, police custody remand of the accused Neeraj Singal is made out. I, therefore, deem it appropriate to remand accused Neeraj Singal and accused Sudhir Kumar Jain to police custody till August 12, 2014," the judge said.

CBI has filed two cases against Jain -- accusing him of receiving a bribe of Rs 50 lakh through conduits and abusing his official position to enhance the credit limits of some companies in violation of laid-down procedures.

The court also sent co-accused Vineet Godha, Puneet Godha and Vijay Pahuja, alias Soni, to police custody remand till August 11 but sent chief financial officer of Bhushan Steel Ltd. Arun Agarwal, arrested by CBI on August 2, to fourteen days judicial custody.

Senior public prosecutor Akshay Gautam pleaded for 14 days police custody of Neeraj Singal and eight-day police custody of Sudhir Kumar Jain, Vineet Godha, Puneet Godha and Vijay Pahuja.

He said the source of the money and the chain of events regarding the payment of bribe is to be ascertained and the accused perons need to be confronted with each other.

Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Neeraj Singal, opposed the contention of CBI for police custody saying he had voluntarily appeared before the investigating agency on Thursday but was arrested by it.

"Since anticipatory bail of the applicant (Singal) was rejected by the court, he, being a law-abiding citizen, voluntarily appeared before CBI which could be ascertained by call details and was arrested," said Luthra.

"I have gone through the case diary carefully and which has been paginated. Having gone through the documents and role assigned to each accused, in my opinion, it is essential to conduct their custodial interrogation," the judge said.The court also pulled up the investigating agency for seeking police remand of Singal for 14 days.
"You can't just come and say that you want police custody of the accused for so and so days," the judge said making it clear that the court will not grant 14-day police custody of Singal as sought by CBI.

Singal was arrested by CBI yesterday hours after the court had issued non-bailable warrant(NBW) against him and one alleged middleman Purushotam Totlani in connection with the case.

The court had also dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of Singal on Wednesday observing that he was one of the "key beneficiaries" and was required to be confronted with other co-accused.

On August 2, CBI had arrested six accused, including Jain and Agarwal, for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 50 lakh for increasing credit limit of some companies in violation of banking rules.
According to CBI, it had conducted searches at several places in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Bhopal in connection with the case.

CBI had claimed to have recovered cash of Rs 21 lakh from Jain's residence besides gold worth Rs 1.68 crore and documents of fixed deposits of upto Rs 63 lakh.

In the two FIRs, CBI has named Singal, Ved Prakash Agarwal, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Prakash Industries, Pawan Bansal, chartered accountant, Vineet and Puneet Godha (relatives of Jain), Vijay Pahuja, Totlani and Pankaj Bansal.

They have been booked under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and criminal conspiracy under the IPC.

PTI

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