Suspended Syndicate Bank CMD, others gets bail in bribery case

Syndicate Bank's suspended CMD S K Jain and five others were today granted bail by a Delhi court after the CBI failed to file charge sheet against them in the stipulated period of 60 days in a bribery case.

Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma gave bail to Jain, co-accused Pawan Bansal, Mukesh Jindal, Vineet Godha and Puneet Godha, Vipul Aggarwal on furnishing of a personal bond of Rs two lakhs each and a surety of the like amount.

However, Jain and Vineet Godha would not be released from jail as they are yet to secure bail in a separate bribery case in which the CBI had arrested them.

According to the provisions of the CrPC, an accused is entitled for bail if the prosecuting agency fails to file a charge sheet in the case within 60 or 90 days, as the case may be, from the date of arrest of the accused.

The court imposed several conditions on all these accused, including that they would not tamper with evidence and will not delay the ongoing proceedings in the case. It also asked them to surrender their passports before it.

The court had earlier granted bail to Bhushan Steel Ltd Vice Chairman and Managing Director Neeraj Singal, the firm's employee Arun Kumar Aggarwal, CMD of Prakash Industries Ltd Ved Prakash Agarwal, alleged middleman Vikas Pahuja and co-accused Pankaj Bansal in connection with the case.

Jain, Singal, Ved Prakash Agarwal, Pankaj Bansal, alleged middleman Purshottam Totlani, Arun Kumar Aggarwal, Vishal Pahuja and others were arrested by the CBI in connection with the case. Totlani, who was arrested by the CBI after he surrendered before the court on September 17, will remain in jail.
Singal was arrested by the CBI on August 7, hours after the court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him and Totlani.

They were apprehended in connection with two separate graft cases in which the CBI had booked them under the Prevention of Corruption Act and for the charge of criminal conspiracy under the IPC.

On August 2, the CBI had arrested some of the accused in connection with the case and claimed to have recovered Rs 21 lakhs in cash from Jain's residence, besides gold worth Rs 1.68 crore and documents of fixed deposits of up to Rs 63 lakhs.

The agency 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.