A Delhi court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to four engineers in a corruption case related to alleged scam in the Public Works Department (PWD).
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s nephew Vinay Bansal is also an accused in the case.
The four engineers, Praveen Kumar Kathureea, Suresh Pal, Baljeet Singh and Ashutosh Singh, had sought bail submitting they had provided all necessary documents having a bearing on the probe into the case to the Investigating Officer.
‘Nothing concealed’
The counsel for the engineers submitted before the court that nothing was concealed and that all four of them were still ready to join the investigation as and when called by the probe officer.
‘Delay in probe’
Opposing their plea, the counsel for prosecuting agency Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) said that contractor company, Messrs Renu Construction, was a partnership firm and that Mr. Bansal was one of the partners. However, the applicants did not provide correct information regarding his status in the firm, which led to unnecessary delay in the probe, the counsel added.
‘Serious offence’
Dismissing their bail applications, Special Judge Sanjay Khanagwal said: “It is true that being a public servant any arrest by the Investigating Officer in the present case may not only affect their personal but their social life as well, but the offence alleged against the applicants is of a serious nature, where money has been paid from the public exchequer without properly checking the bills and monitoring the quality of construction work.”
“It is true that being the public servant, applicants may not flee from justice, but the nature and gravity of accusations made against the applicants does not entitle them to the protection of this court. Therefore, the present applications for grant of anticipatory bail are dismissed,” Mr. Khanagwal also said.
