A special court for CBI cases here on Thursday dismissed bail pleas of Prakash Industries chairman-cum-managing director Ved Prakash Agarwal and its director Vipul Agarwal in the Syndicate Bank bribery case.
Special Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma dismissed their bail applications, admitting the plea of counsel for the investigating agency that they would tamper with evidence if released on bail as investigation into the allegations against them was still on.
Seeking bail for the two, their counsel submitted that the case against them was based only on the intercepts of their conversations recorded by the agency. As regards Vipul Agarwal, he was no more associated with the company as he had relinquished the directorship last year, his counsel stated.
There are nine accused in the case, including Syndicate Bank’s suspended Chairman-cum-Managing Director S.K. Jain. Nine other accused are Bhushan Steel vice-chairman Neeraj Singhal, Ved Prakash Agarwal and Vipul Agarwal, Pawan Bansal, chartered accountant, Vineet and Puneet Godha, Vijay Pahuja, Purushotam Totlani and Pankaj Bansal.
Eight of them are in judicial custody while Totlani is absconding.
The investigating agency has charged them with entering into a criminal conspiracy to bribe the bank’s chairman for increasing the credit limit of the Bhushan Steel. It had arrested Mr. Jain while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs.50 lakh.
