Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda, his son and a businessman were on Friday granted bail by a Special CBI Court in the coal block allocation case.
Special CBI Judge Madhu Jain granted bail to Mr. Darda, his son Devendra, and Nagpur-based AMR Iron and Steel Pvt. Ltd. director Manoj Jayaswal on furnishing of a personal bond of Rs.2 lakh each and a surety of the like amount.
“Never arrested”
“The accused persons were never arrested during the investigation and have appeared before the court at first instance of issuance of summons to them. No purpose will be served by sending them to jail as there appears to be no apprehension of their fleeing from justice,” the court said.
Mr. Vijay Darda, his son and Mr. Jayaswal appeared before the court following summons issued on May 7 and moved their bail pleas. AMR Iron and Steel Pvt. Ltd. was also summoned by the court.
Seeking bail, their counsel Vijay Aggarwal said the investigation in the case was going on and that they should be granted the relief as they have not been arrested so far.
Their plea for bail was opposed by the CBI, which said the allegations against them were serious in nature and with the accused being influential persons, there was every likelihood of their tampering with evidence or influencing witnesses.
The defence counsel said Mr. Vijay Darda and the other accused have not breached the summons and have appeared in court as per its order.
Meanwhile, the court supplied the copy of the chargesheet to all the accused and fixed the matter for scrutiny of documents on July 8.
The MP, his son, Mr. Jayaswal and the firm were charge-sheeted for the offences under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of the IPC and under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act for concealing the earlier coal block allotments to gain fresh blocks.
