Kumar remanded to 14-day judicial custody in bribery

CBI Deputy Superintendent of Police Devender Kumar and a suspected middleman Manoj Prasad, who were arrested in connection with the bribery case against Special Director Rakesh Asthana, were on Tuesday sent to 14-day judicial custody.

Both were in CBI custody and were sent to jail after the CBI informed the court that they were not needed for custodial interrogation. The court also issued notice to the CBI seeking its response on Kumar's bail application by Friday.

In the court, Kumar, who was produced as his seven-day CBI custody ended, claimed that the agency was tampering with evidence and trying to implicate him. He claimed that ten devices — eight mobiles, one iPAd and his son's laptop — were recovered from him by the CBI before his arrest but the memo showed seizure of only one phone.

"The very foundation of this case is based on lies and fabrication and falsification of the evidence. They retained certain articles taken from me but did not show it in the seizure memo. They (CBI) are misusing their powers and misleading even this court. They are tempering with the evidence. They should be booked for theft and extortion," Kumar's lawyer said.

Responding to Kumar, the Investigating Officer Satish Dagar told the court that he recently took over the probe. He said the seizure memo spoke about only one mobile phone but there were nine other devices which were with the Technical and Forensic Support Unit (TAFSU) of CBI. They were with the TAFSU for the purpose of retrieving the data, he said.

Sources said the investigation team took possession of all the devices from TAFSU on October 26. A TAFSU officer said in the handing over document that the mobile phone mentioned in the seizure memo was given for examination on October 20 while the rest were given to him two days later for data extraction purpose.

"The articles were kept in paper envelopes but were not in sealed condition. However, the envelopes were closed using cello tape," he said.