Court to hold daily hearings in CWG case, denies bail to five

A Delhi court today dismissed the bail plea of five people, arrested for their alleged roles in a Commonwealth Games-related corruption case and decided to hold day-to-day proceedings in the case.

The five accused whose bail pleas were dismissed by special CBI judge Talwant Singh also included CWG OC General Secretary Lalit Bhanot.

"The bail pleas of five accused are dismissed. It is also ordered that soon after the scrutiny of documents is over, this case will be taken up on day-to-day basis," the judge said.

The order evoked sharp concerns among lawyers, one of whom said it will be difficult for them to "adjust the dairy" as there are other cases like 2G spectrum case where they have to appear.

The judge, however, said that after the scrutiny of documents is over, they would be given "reasonable" time to adjust their diaries and the case will be then taken up on day-to-day basis.

"You have to adjust, what else can be done? It is not a matter smaller than the 2G case. I have requested the Delhi High Court for reducing the burden of this court. It will be finally decided by the high court but this case will be heard on day-to-day basis," the judge said.

The court also dismissed the bail pleas of Joint Director General (Sports) A S V Prasad, OC's former Director General (Procurement) Surjit Lal and former treasurer M Jaychandran and Hyderabad-based AKR Construction's promoter A K Reddy.

The five CWG scam accused had sought bail claiming parity of their situations with the accused in the 2G case, some of them were granted bail by the Supreme Court with observation that "the bail was rule, jail an exception" and others by the Delhi High Court.

Counsel for Bhanot, who was arrested on February 23 last year, had said that both the cases (CWG and 2G) are related to allegations of financial irregularities and are also similar in their alleged effect on society and loss to exchequer.

Advocate Ramesh Gupta cited the Supreme Court and the high court judgements in the 2G case and said the higher courts had considered the nature and gravity of the case and then granted bail.

"These judgements (of the Supreme Court and the high court) are not applicable to the 2G case only. They are now law," he had said.

The CBI had filed its first charge sheet against sacked CWG Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi and 10 others on May 20, 2011 and the court had on May 23, 2011 allowed the agency to prosecute them.

Besides Kalmadi, CBI had named Prasad, Lal, Jaychandran, Bhanot and former director general V K Verma as accused.

It had also issued charge sheet against Faridabad-based Gem International promoters Purushottam Dev Arya and Anil Kumar Madan and Hyderabad-based AKR Construction Pvt Ltd's promoter A K Reddy on charges of criminal conspiracy, corruption, cheating and forgery.

Two firms AKR Constructions and Swiss Timing were also named as accused in the case.
The CBI had filed two more charge sheets in November last year against Arya, Madan and Reddy for allegedly trying to evade arrest and trial in the main graft case.