Justice S K Mahajan, after hearing the counsel for Rao, K K Tewary and K L Verma reserved the order and asked the authorities Not to arrest these accused till the pronouncement of the order on bail pleas and said he would pronounce the order in a day or two.
Additional solicitor general Altaf Ahmed, who argued for the CBI, started his argument saying I rise to oppose all these bail applications, and went on to say that the accused should not be granted bail and the high court should not substitute the role of a trial court.
Ahmed said the arrest warrants issued against the accused by chief metropolitan magistrate (CMM) Prem Kumar were valid as he had applied his judicial mind after careful appreciation of facts.
He said the arrest warrants issued were due to gravity of the offence of conspiracy, role of the accused in the conspiracy and the long arm of the accused persons as was said in the order of the CMM.
The CMM on Friday issued arrest warrants against Rao, Verma, Tewary and Larry J Kolb for forging documents to purportedly show that V P Singh and his son opened an account at St Kitts and deposited over $20 million in it in 1988.
It was alleged that Rao asked the consulate general in New York to authenticate certain forged documents regarding opening of a bank account in First Trust Corporation in St Kitts Island by Ajeya Singh, son of former prime minister V P Singh, in a bid to damage their reputation.
The additional solicitor general while reaffirming the correctness of the charges applied against the accused by the trial court while issuing the arrest warrants said the way the conspiracy was hatched in a hush hush manner and in secrecy to defame V P Singh and Ajeya Singh needed to be looked into from a different angle. He said it was Rao who allegedly issued the instructions to R K Rai, the consulate general in New York in October 1989, to attest certain forged documents relating to the St Kitts bank account brought by A P Nandy, the then deputy director enforcement.
Ahmed said Rao further instructed Rai not to disclose this to the ambassador or to any one which showed that it was done very secretively and contended that the trial judge was Not wrong in issuing non-bailable arrest warrants.
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Raos counsel R K Anand said as the investigation in the case was complete and the chargesheet had been filed, there could be no apprehension that his client would tamper with evidence and assured the court Rao would not flee from justice and prayed for grant of anticipatory bail to his client.
On a specific query from the court as to why he should not approach the regular court for bail, Anand said the trial court has already made up its mind against the former premier and It would be a futile exercise to approach the CMMs court for bail.
The high court earlier sought the opinion of the counsel as to whether it should protect their clients from arrest till the date they appear before the trial court while disposing of the anticipatory bail applications.
Justice Mahajan also said the accused after appearing before the court could apply for regular bail. Anand submitted that anticipatory bail should be granted not for a limited period but till the conclusion of the trial.
However, counsel for Tewary while agreeing with the arguments put forth by Anand said he had ample faith in the trial court unlike Rao and the suggestion of the high court to approach the trial court for bail was acceptable to him provided the high court protected him in the interim period.
Vermas counsel K K Luthra said his client faces a strange situation as the CBI in its chargesheet had sought his discharge from the case but the trial court issued arrest warrant against him.