Court extends judicial custody of accused till Sep 24 in Syndicate bribery case

A Delhi court on Thursday extended till September 24 the judicial custody of Syndicate Bank CMD Sudhir Kumar Jain, Bhushan Steel Vice Chairman and MD Neeraj Singal and nine others who were arrested by CBI in connection with a bribery case.

On expiry of their judicial custody, the accused were produced before special CBI judge Swarana Kanta Sharma who extended it further till September 24 after the agency said that probe into the case was going on.

Besides Jain and Singal, CBI had arrested CMD of Prakash Industries Ltd, Ved Prakash Agarwal, its director Vipul Agarwal, Arun Aggarwal, who is alleged to be Chief Financial Officer of Bhushan Power and Steel, and six others in the case.

Alleged middleman Purshottam Totlani, also an accused in the case, is still absconding.

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

On August 2, CBI had arrested six accused in connection with the case and 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 separate 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.

Singal was arrested by CBI on August 7, hours after the court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him.

CBI had earlier filed an application in the court seeking directions to Jain, Singal, Ved Prakash Agarwal and co-accused Vineet Godha and Puneet Godha for recording their voice sample for its ongoing probe.

The agency, in its plea, had said that case was based on intercepted telephonic conversations and specimen voice sample of these accused was required for their probe.

The court would hear remaining arguments on the CBI's plea on September 19.