A Delhi court yesterday ordered to take into custody former MP, Ram Sharan Yadav when appeared on summon and sent him to high security Tihar jail in 14-day judicial remand for allegedly threatening one of the CBI witnesses in the multi-crore JMM MPs bribery case.
Dismissing his bail plea, the special judge, Ajit Bharihoke, said there was prima facie evidecne to show that the accused had threatened the witness.
Opposing the bail plea of of Yadav, CBI counsel A K Dutt told the court that his (Yadav's) former personal assistant Pradyuman Kumar, cited as one of the witness in the case, had lodged a complaint on January 31 with South Avenue police post alleging that he had been threatened not to appear before the court as a witness against him.
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The court dismissed the contention of Yadav's counsel Raj Kumar that Pradyuman Kumar had been misusing some of the documents including his letter pads which were with him.
He said Yadav had even filed a complaint against his former PA in west Delhi's Vikaspuri police station on January one in this regard.
Yadav has allegedly received a bribe of Rs 20 lakh to support P V Narasimha Rao government in the July 1993 no-confidenc motion.
However, the court granted bail to seven other accused on furnishing personal bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of like amount each.
Cautioning the accused against any attempt to tamper with the evidence, Bharihoke directed them to surrender their passport to the CBI and not to leave the country without the permission of the court.
The seven accused who were granted bail yesterday are former Union ministers Ajit Singh and Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and former MPs, Abhay Pratap Singh, Anadi Charan Das, Haji Ghulam Mohammad and Roshan Lal.
All these accused, including Ram Sharan Singh Yadav had been named by the CBI in the final chargesheet submitted in the court in the last week of January.
Besides them, there are 13 other accused including former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, two of his former colleagues, Satish Sharma and Buta Singh, Rao's kin V Rajeshwar Rao, MP and former Karnataka Chief Minister Veerapa Moily two former Karnataka ministers H M Revanna and Ramalinga Reddy, two Karnataka-based liquor barons M Thimmegowda and D Adikeshvulu and four JMM functionaries Suraj Mandal, Shailendra Mahato, Simon Marandi and Shibu Soren, MP.
They had already been granted bail by the court earlier.
Narasimha rao did not appear in the court today as he has been admitted to the all india institute of medical sciences for some eye ailment. Meanwhile, bhajan lal in an application submitted to the court today requested for return of rs 20.75 lakh, gold jewellery worth several lakhs of rupees and some other documents including share certificates and investment papers seized by cbi during raids at his residences in delhi and haryana. The case was adjourned for february 26 for scrutiny of the documents.