Micromax co-founder Rajesh Agarwal and six others, arrested in connection with a bribery case, were on Wednesday remanded to CBI custody till August 19 by a Delhi court after the agency said their custodial interrogation was necessary to unearth the larger conspiracy.
Mr. Agarwal, co-founder of Micromax Technologies Pvt Ltd, his associate Manish Tuli, four North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) engineers Rajesh Wadhwa, M.K. Gupta, Satish Kumar and Naresh Kumar, and Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) junior engineer Rajesh Gupta were sent to CBI custody.
Special CBI Judge Poonam Bamba, however, remanded NDMC’s engineer Sanjay Kumar and private person Ashok Lamba, who were also arrested in the case, in judicial custody till August 27.
Seven accused were produced before the court from CBI custody, which was granted on August 8.
NDMC’s Superintendent Engineer Rajesh Wadhwa and Assistant Engineer M.K. Gupta, both of whom were arrested on Tuesday from a hotel in Jaipur where they were allegedly hiding, were also produced before the court.
During the hearing, CBI told the court that they need sustained custodial interrogation of the accused to complete its probe as there was a possibility that some higher officials may also be involved in this entire conspiracy.
“Some persons are evading arrest and they are not joining the investigation. Some higher officials may be involved in this case. Transcripts of the telephonic conversations clearly reflects that some higher officials may also be involved. We need remand to unearth the larger conspiracy”, the CBI said.
Mr. Agarwal, who has stepped down as the Managing Director of Micromax mobiles following his arrest, Tuli and other accused were arrested on August 7 when they were allegedly giving a bribe of Rs. 30 lakh to NDMC officials for regularisation of an unauthorised property.
