NEW DELHI: A day after wife and daughter of director general of corporate affairs BK Bansal, who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in an alleged bribery case, committed suicide by hanging themselves at their residence in the national capital facing harassment from the agency, the a special court granted two days interim bail to the Bansal on Wednesday.
Unhappy with the CBI, the court also asked the agency to rethink “whether it is necessary to arrest the accused in such cases”.
Special CBI Judge Gurdeep Singh granted the relief to Bansal till July 22 and said that after Tuesday's incident of suicide, it is time for the probe agency to rethink whether it is necessary to arrest the accused in such cases.
“These are not the conventional crimes like murder. Earlier, CBI used to not arrest in such cases. The evidences are mostly documentary in nature,” the judge said while noting that the accused are public servants.
The court allowed the plea moved by advocate Uma Kant Kataria, appearing for Bansal, who submitted that his client's presence was required for the last rites of his wife and daughter and that his own health condition was not good.
In its reply to Bansal's application, the probe agency said it has no objection to the interim bail to the accused on “humanitarian grounds”.
His wife and daughter committed suicide by hanging themselves at their residence in the national capital on Tuesday. Sources said that in the suicide notes, they alleged harassment by the agency sleuths during frequent raids at their house after arrest of Bansal in alleged bribery case.
Bansal’s 58-year-old wife Satya Bala and daughter Neha, 28, were found hanging from ceiling fans of two separate rooms at Neelkanth Apartment in Delhi’s Madhu Vihar area.
Police said they left separate suicide notes where they alleged that they were in ashamed because of frequents raids by CBI at their house.
Sources said that both mother and daughter in the suicide notes had stated that the CBI carried our raids thrice at the house for more than 14 hours consecutively.
However, the CBI refuted the allegation. The agency said in a statement: "We are deeply shocked and saddened by the incident. It may be mentioned here that both the deceased were neither accused nor questioned or summoned in the ongoing investigation. The matter is being looked into by the local police."
Bansal, an additional secretary-rank officer in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, was arrested by CBI on July 16 for allegedly accepting bribe from a prominent pharmaceutical company. CBI had carried out searches at eight locations in connection with the case during which the agency had claimed to have made cash recoveries.
