A Hyderabad court on Wednesday dismissed the request for bail by suspended IAS officer B.P. Acharya and financial controller of Emaar MGF Land G. Venkata Vijay Raghav in the Emaar township scam with a direction to the CBI to complete the investigation in the case at the earliest.
This is the third time that the application of Acharya, main accused in the scam, and fourth time in the case of Vijay Raghav, that it was rejected by the trial court.
The court did not concede the view of Acharya that he be bailed out as the deadline set by the High Court for completion of investigation had expired saying “the order of the High Court cannot be interpreted in that way as the non-filing of the charge-sheet within the stipulated time will not automatically entitle him to bail.”
The court took into account the CBI’s commitment to file the charge-sheet only after examining a broker linked to Emaar MGF Land Dinesh Jain. The Enforcement Directorate had recovered over Rs 6 crore from his residence in New Delhi.
The contention of the CBI that Acharya and Vijay Raghav could tamper evidence if released on bail was also considered in rejecting their request. It was held that the investigation at a crucial stage. There was a “strong” prima facie case against Acharya because he betrayed the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation as its vice-chairman and managing director by not taking action against those who sold the villa plots in the township without the knowledge of the corporation.
