Court summons Syndicate Bank ex-CMD, five others in graft case

NEW DELHI: Syndicate Bank's sacked CMD Sudhir Kumar Jain, Bhushan Steel Ltd (BSL) Vice Chairman and Managing Director Neeraj Singal and four others, chargesheeted by CBI in an alleged bribery case, have been summoned by a special court to appear before it as accused on November 2.

Special CBI Judge Gurdeep Singh took cognisance of the CBI charge sheet filed against them for the alleged offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and under various provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.

"After going through statements and the documents, I am satisfied that there is sufficient incriminating material on record to proceed against accused persons," the judge said.

"I, accordingly, take cognizance of the offence under section 120B of IPC read with section 7, 12, 13(2) read with section 13(1)(d) of the PC Act against Sudhir Kumar Jain, a government servant (terminated), Vineet Godha, Puneet Godha, Vijay Pahuja, Neeraj Singhal and Pankaj Tiwari," the judge said.

In its charge sheet, CBI has said that service of Jain was terminated by government and thus no sanction for his prosecution was required.

The court had in September last year granted bail to all the accused, including Jain and Singhal, after CBI had failed to file the charge sheet against them within the stipulated period of 60 days.

Apart from Jain and Singhal, CBI had earlier arrested Arun Aggarwal, Puneet Godha, Vineet Godha, Pankaj Kumar Tiwari, Purushottam Lal Totlani and Vijay Pahuja in connection with the case.

In its charge sheet, CBI said nothing incriminating has come on record against Arun Aggarwal, CFO of Bhushan Steel and Power Ltd, and Totlani and therefore they were not charge sheeted.

CBI had registered two separate graft cases under Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC for the alleged offence of criminal conspiracy.

In August last year, CBI had arrested some of the accused in connection with the case and claimed to have recovered Rs 21 lakh in cash from Jain's residence besides gold worth Rs 1.68 crore and fixed deposit documents 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.