CWG scam: CWG panel's official judicial custody extended

While slating June 13 to hear Jaychandran's bail plea, Special Judge Talwant Singh also extended his judicial custody till July 14.

The court decided to hear Jaychandran's bail plea despite the trial court closing for summer vacation from next week.

"Keeping in view the urgency of the matter, the court will function till June 15. Further arguments be taken up on June 13," the judge said after hearing partial arguments on Jaychandran's bail plea.

The court also reserved for June 15 the order on the anticipatory bail plea of A K Reddy, the promoter of Hyderabad-based firm AKR Constructions, which was given a sub-contract for TSR work by another sub-contractor, Gem International which itself was a sub-contractor for 'Swiss Timing'. Reddy had been declared a proclaimed offender on May 23.

Arguing for grant of bail to Jaychandran, his counsel V K Verma refuted CBI's allegation that he had manipulated the minutes of the meeting of a finance committee within the CWG organising committee to justify the award of the contract to the Swiss firm for installing the Timing-Scoring-and-Result system for the games.

Refuting CBI's allegation, Jaychandran's counsel told the court that he "had noted down the final minutes of the OC Finance Committee (OCFC) meeting but later some superior officers directed me to make changes and put something else on record."

"I followed the orders of superior officers and CBI says I had manipulated the minutes of the meetings," he added. He also countered CBI's allegation that he appeared in the court only after a non-bailable warrant (NBW) was issued against him and said he was not absconding.

Opposing his bail plea, CBI had yesterday argued that "he was a very senior government official of joint secretary rank and held a high position in the OC CWG 2010 while a number of witnesses, who will depose in the case, are his subordinates or much junior to him."

If granted bail, he may influence witnesses, the CBI counsel argued. A non-bailable warrant was issued against Jaychandran on May 23 after the probe agency submitted that he is not cooperating in the investigation and has stopped appearing before it after his role surfaced as an accused in the case.

Jaychandran had surrendered before the court on June 3 and was sent to Tihar jail in judicial custody. He was later remanded to CBI custody on June 6 for three days on the plea that he had to be interrogated in custody to unearth the money trail in the scam as besides being the OC treasurer, he was also the secretary of its sub-panel on finance that dealt with the money transactions.