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Syndicate Bank Chief Managing Director (CMD) Sudhir Kumar Jain and Bhushan Steel Ltd Vice Chairman and Managing Director Neeraj Singal were today remanded to judicial custody till August 16 by a Delhi court in connection with a bribery case.
Jain and Singal were produced before Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma who turned down the plea of the probe agency seeking further police remand of Singal.
"There is no new fact and evidence brought on record which could substantiate as to why CBI needs further police custody of Singal. The accused (Singal) is remanded to judicial custody till August 16," the judge said.
It also sent Jain to judicial custody till August 16 after the CBI said he was not required for any further custodial interrogation.
Both the accused were produced before the court after expiry of their police custody.
During the arguments, the CBI prosecutor told the court that the trail and source of the alleged bribe amount is yet to be found out and the person who had carried the amount from Delhi to Bhopal on behalf of Singal is yet to be traced and arrested.
He said that for arresting Pankaj, who had carried the alleged bribe amount, they need further custodial interrogation of Singal.
The court, however, disagreed with the contentions of the CBI prosecutor, saying that this was the same ground on which Singal was remanded to police custody earlier.
To this, the prosecutor said that Singal has not co-operated with the probe agency during his custodial interrogation.
"If he has not co-operated with you during the last four days, then what is the guarantee that he will co-operate now," the judge observed.
CBI has filed two cases against Jain -- accusing him of receiving a bribe of Rs 50 lakh through conduits and abusing his official position to enhance the credit limits of some companies in violation of laid-down procedures.
The court had earlier sent co-accused Vineet Godha, Puneet Godha, Vijay Pahuja, chief financial officer of Bhushan Steel Ltd Arun Agarwal and other arrested accused to judicial custody.
During the hearing today, the court also issued production warrants for August 16 against all the accused who were sent to judicial custody earlier.
