Syndicate Bank case: Order on bail pleas tomorrow

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has deferred till tomorrow its order on the bail pleas of Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of Prakash Industries Ltd Ved Prakash Agarwal, and its Director Vipul Agarwal, arrested in the Syndicate Bank bribery case.

Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma, who was scheduled to pass the order on the bail pleas of these two accused today, said she needs to go through some more documents before deciding the applications.

The court had yesterday reserved its order on the bail pleas after hearing the arguments from the counsel for the CBI and the accused.

Earlier, during the arguments on the bail applications, advocate Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for both the accused, had told the court that CBI's case against his clients was merely on the basis of recorded conversations allegedly intercepted by the agency.

"CBI has alleged that my client (Ved Prakash Agarwal) had Syndicate Bank's CMD in his pocket but the condition imposed on the firm for sanction of loan was such that it could never be fulfilled and, moreover, the loan amount was also reduced," he had said.

Seeking bail for Vipul Agarwal, the lawyer had contended that his client had resigned from the post of Director of Prakash Industries Ltd in October 31 last year and he was now in no way associated with the company.

Countering the contention of the defence counsel, CBI prosecutor Akshay Gautam had said the probe into the case was still underway and if released on bail at this stage, the accused may try to tamper with evidence.

All the accused are in judicial custody till August 29. On August 2, CBI had arrested six accused, including Syndicate Bank CMD Sudhir Kumar Jain and Ved Prakash Agarwal in connection with the case.

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

The agency 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.

Bhushan Steel Ltd Vice-Chairman Neeraj Singal, co-accused in the case, was arrested by CBI on August 7, hours after the court had issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him and an alleged middleman, Purushotam Totlani in the case.

In two FIRs, CBI has named Singal, Ved Prakash Agarwal, Vipul Agarwal, Pawan Bansal, chartered accountant, 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.