A court has again rejected the bail application of industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad on the ground that the case of Vanpic project implementation which resulted in his arrest on May 15 was a “complex web of facts closely intertwined”.
This was the second time the principal court for CBI cases turned down his request for bail within a month.
In its order on Wednesday, the court conceded the stand of CBI that Prasad will influence his employees who were yet to be examined by the agency if he was released on bail. The investigation in the case will suffer if that happened.
Prasad acted as a conduit to Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy for the purpose of investment in the latter’s companies. One of the investments related to transfer of Rs. 70 crore from Indu group of companies to Jagan owned Carmel Asia Holdings and Jagati Publication. Moreover, investigation was still required into pumping of several crores of rupees into Vanpic by Mauritius based RAK Infra Holdings and RAK Vision.
The court also accepted the contention of CBI that filing of the charge sheet in the case was not the end of investigation. The CBI proposed to file different charge sheets for distinct offences that sprouted from the same FIR. The High Court was also of the view that CBI was justified in filing different charge sheets. “Merely because investigation was completed in one facet of crime, he cannot claim bail since his involvement in other related offences was under active investigation”, the court observed.
The court did not rule out the possibility of Prasad tampering evidence if he was bailed out due to the complex nature of the case.
He was charged with grave offences in terms of their nature, effect and punishment. The investigation could also unearth many more possible offences.
