IAS officer denied bail in bribery case

A special court today denied bail to suspended principal secretary in the Chhattisgarh government, B L Agrawal, who was arrested in a bribery case.
Special judge Virender Kumar Goyal dismissed the bail plea noting that the investigation was at a crucial stage.
The agency has registered a corruption case against the 1988-batch IAS officer accusing him of trying to "settle" an ongoing probe being conducted by it against him.
The other accused -- Anand Agrawal, a relative of the officer, alleged middleman Bhagwan Singh and Syed Burhanuddin, who claimed to be an official of the Prime Minister's Office, are in judicial custody.

The officer had sought the relief claiming that he and his wife were suffering from various serious ailments.
The CBI, however, had opposed the bail plea saying that a family member's medical condition cannot be considered for bail of the accused.

The agency had also said that the probe is at a crucial stage and if released on bail, the officer, being an influential person, may tamper with the evidence.
"A person who is trying to influence the PMO and even trying to bend the course of investigation in his favour shows how influential he is," it had said.
The court had on March 21 dismissed the bail plea of Anand Agrawal in the case.

The CBI had claimed that the officer was facing probe in two cases registered in 2010 when he was the health secretary in the Chhattisgarh government. He has been charge-sheeted in one, while probe is going on in the other.
The agency has alleged that the officer had approached Bhagwan Singh, a Noida resident, who took him to Burhanuddin to get the graft case "settled".
The agency has registered a case of criminal conspiracy under the IPC and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act against the accused.