The CBI has requested a court here to allow it 20-25 days more to complete the investigation in Emaar township scam and file the third charge sheet thereafter as fresh evidence in the case had come to light.
The investigating agency admitted that it failed to meet the deadline though the High Court granted it a maximum of three months up to April end last to complete the probe against the main accused in the case and suspended IAS officer B.P. Acharya.
The delay was on account of searches by the enforcement directorate (ED) on the office and residential premises of persons linked to Emaar MGF Land which was the co-developer for the project yielding over Rs eight crore. The source of money had to be tracked. Moreover, the examination of managing director of Emaar MGF Land Shravan Gupta was over only on Thursday.
The court was hearing the bail applications of Acharya and the financial controller of Emaar MGF Land G. Venkata Vijaya Raghav. The CBI opposed both the petitions.
Cunsel for CBI Balla Ravindranath told the court that the agency would round off investigation with the examination of Dinesh Jain, a close associate of Emaar MGF Land, from whose house in New Delhi a sum of Rs. 6.89 crore was recovered by ED. Another Rs. 1.19 crore was found in the house of Shravan Gupta and Rs. 32 lakh in the office of Emaar MGF Land at New Delhi.
Jain was absconding when investigating officers of CBI visited his house at New Delhi. His family members did not share information about his whereabouts. He was the last missing link to the whole probe. The investigation will be an unending process if he did not present himself, Mr. Ravindranath said.
The defence lawyer Diljit Singh Ahluwalia said Jain was only a broker and not an employee of Emaar MGF. He asked the CBI to use the statement of Jain available with ED for trial instead of prolonging the investigation.
On the bail plea of Acharya, Mr. Ravindranath argued that the CBI had sufficient evidence about the criminal nature of discharge of duties by the former which resulted in a loss of Rs. 43.5 crore to the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and gain of Rs. 167.5 crore to the accused in the Emaar scam. (eom)/
