VISAKHAPATNAM: A CBI court in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday dismissed the bail petitions filed by Mumbai-based income-tax commissioner B B Rajendra Prasad, Essar Group of Companies managing director Pradip Mittal and four others who were arrested earlier this month in a bribery case.
The ruling came after a marathon hearing of six hours in which a battery of lawyers from Mumbai presented Mittal’s case for bail. The judge heard them out and threw out the petition.
The Essar executives and the income tax official will now have to spend another 14 days in remand in the Vizag Central Prison. The next hearing is scheduled for May 29.
Sources said Pradip Mittal and others may apply for bail again in the second hearing, slated for May 29," a CBI officer said on the condition of anonymity.
Rajendra Prasad is a a 1992-batch IRS officer who was arrested on May 3 in Vizag for allegedly demanding Rs 2 crore as a bribe to pass a favourable order in an appeal pertaining to the Mumbai-based Balaji Trust which is backed by the Essar Group.
The CBI later arrested Essar accounts officer Vipin Bajpai and Shreyas Parikh, the company’s chartered accountant from M/s GK Choksi, and two real estate agents Suresh Kumar Jain and Manish Jain.
The CBI booked the accused under Sections 7 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
A resident of Vizag, Rajendra Prasad allegedly demanded that the bribe money be delivered to the relative of a real estate agent in Mumbai, who after collecting the money, transferred it to a real estate agent in Vizag.
The CBI laid a trap and caught Rajendra Prasad when he came to Vizag on a vacation and was accepting a part of the bribe amount of Rs 19.34 lakh from the agent.
During the investigation, the remaining bribe amount was recovered from the agent.