A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to Manoj Prasad, an alleged middleman arrested in connection with bribery allegations involving CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana.
Special CBI judge Santosh Snehi Mann granted bail to Mr. Prasad saying that no purpose will be served by keeping him in further custody. Prasad, arrested on October 17, is currently in judicial custody. The court had on November 3 denied bail to Prasad, saying it was not a fit stage to grant him relief.
On October 31, it had granted bail to co-accused and CBI DSP Devender Kumar after the agency did not oppose his bail petition.
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The agency had registered an FIR against Mr. Asthana and others on a written complaint of businessman Sathish Sana on October 15. Besides Mr. Asthana, Mr. Prasad and Mr. Kumar, another alleged middleman Somesh Prasad has also been named as an accused in the case.
The FIR had alleged that Mr. Kumar, then Investigating Officer (IO) in the case against meat exporter Moin Qureshi, repeatedly called the complainant to the CBI office to harass and compel him to pay a bribe of ₹5 crore for getting a clean chit in the case. The complaint had also alleged that a part of the bribe was paid by Mr. Sana.