NEW DELHI: Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court on Tuesday granted interim bail to two former officials of Excise Department-- Deputy Commissioner Kuldeep Singh, Assistant Commissioner Narender Singh and three others, in connection with the liquor policy case which is also involving Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
Three others--Managing Director of India Ahead News channel Gautam Mootha, Hyderabad-based liquor businessman Arun R Pillai, owner of Indospirit Sameer Mahendru were also granted bail by the court on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 50,000 and one surety of the like amount.
Special Judge MK Nagpal extended the judicial custody till January 7 of other accused persons in the case--Businessmen Sharath Reddy, Binoy Babu, Vijay Nair, and Abhishek Boinpally noting that the bail petitions of all these accused persons are presently pending in the court for arguments on different dates.
Nair and Boinpally, were granted regular bail earlier but they have to remain in Judicial custody as they were also arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in an Excise Money Laundering case and their bail petition is pending before the trial court.
Boinpally has also surrendered his passport in court as per an earlier order while Nair sought some more time for the same. The court also sought the response of CBI on the regular bail applications of five accused persons and directed to be filed by next date of hearing on January 24.
The special judge passed the order after noting the submissions of the Enforcement Directorate’s special public prosecutor N K Matta that the agency was in process of filing a supplementary charge sheet against all arrested accused.
The agency had earlier told the court that the next charge sheet would be common against all the arrested accused in the money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi excise scam. The ED told the court that the investigation was regarding the role of other accused persons and the phasing out of the remaining proceeds.