Documents case: hearing on bail plea postponed

The court had earlier postponed the hearing on the bail applications of the five corporate executives on three occasions

An Indian police man, in blue sweater, escorts an alleged suspect, right, who is among the seven persons in an oil espionage case, to a police van to be produced in a court from the Delhi Crime Branch unit, in New Delhi, India, Friday, Feb. 20, 2015. Police have arrested seven people for allegedly stealing classified documents from the Indian government and selling them to energy companies, a top police officer said Friday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

A Delhi court on Wednesday once again postponed hearing on the bail applications of five corporate executives in the documents theft case.

Shailesh Saxena of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), Rishi Anand of Anil Dhirubai Ambani Group, Vinay Kumar of Essar, K.K. Nayak of Cairn and Subhash Chandra of Jubiliant Energy had sought bail. They are in judicial custody. The court had earlier postponed the hearing on three occasions.

Additional Sessions Judge Raj Kapoor postponed the hearing to April 24 on a common request by counsel for the bail applicants to defer it for two days in view of the call of abstention from courts by lawyers of all the six districts.

The Coordination Committee of All District Courts’ Bar Associations has given the boycott call in protest against the alleged delay in amending the Delhi High Court Act, 1966 to increase the pecuniary jurisdiction of the lower courts from Rs. 20 lakh to Rs. 2 crore.

The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police has filed a charge-sheet against the 13 accused.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Sanjay Khanagwal has taken cognisance of it and fixed May 18 as the date for hearing arguments on it.