Court refuses bail to suspended censor board CEO Rakesh Kumar

MUMBAI: The special CBI court here today rejected the bail application of suspended CEO of Central Board of Film Certification Rakesh Kumar who was arrested on the charge of taking bribe for issuing censor certificates to films.

Judge R N Joshi, while refusing him bail, accepted CBI's contention that Kumar might tamper with evidence if released.

During the hearing on the application, the judge remarked that the impact of this crime was "depraving which destroys the coming generations" and it was "worse than economic offences".

Kumar's bail application said he was framed by a lobby of agents. The application, filed through his lawyer advocate Mahesh Vaswani, claimed the agents wanted him out of the way because he had initiated certain reforms to curb the red tape and increase transparency.

CBI prosecutor Gul Asnani had said the investigation was at a crucial stage and Kumar may tamper with the evidence or abscond if released.

Kumar was arrested by CBI on August 18, four days after an agent and a member of CBFC's advisory panel were arrested for taking bribe, allegedly on Kumar's behalf.

They later got bail.