A Delhi court on Monday reserved its order till Wednesday on the bail pleas of three businessmen arrested for their alleged role in Commonwealth Games related graft case involving sacked Organising Committee (OC) Chairman Suresh Kalmadi after the CBI opposed any relief to them.
Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh reserved the order on the bail pleas of promoters of Faridabad-based Gem International, Purushottam Dev Arya and Anil Kumar Madan, and promoter of AKR Constructions A.K. Reddy.
"Put up for orders on February 15," the court said. During the arguments, Reddy sought bail on the ground that allegations levelled against him were not 'so serious' as compared to those against Kalmadi and OC former Director General V.K. Verma, who were earlier granted bail by Delhi High Court.
"My case is much better placed than other co-accused in the case. I am not even placed similarly to Kalmadi and Verma."
"The CBI had vehemently opposed the bail pleas of Kalmadi and Verma in the High Court but despite the fact that there were allegations of threatening the witnesses on them, the High Court granted them bail. There is no such allegation against me," Reddy's counsel said.
Madan and Arya, who have already been granted bail in the graft case, are still in jail along with Reddy in connection with other case registered against them for evading arrest after being summoned by the court following the filing of charge sheet by the CBI.
The CBI, however, opposed the bail pleas of the trio saying they were absconding and were compelled to surrender and thus they do not deserve to be released on bail.
The court had earlier declared Reddy, Madan and Arya proclaimed offenders in the case for avoiding its summonses and arrest warrants to stand trial.
The three are now facing trial along with Kalmadi and seven others for their alleged role in the award of contract for installation of Timing, Scoring and Result (TSR) System for the Games to a Swiss firm -- Swiss Timing Omega.
The Swiss firm had later sub-contracted its work to Faridabad-based Gem International, which had, in turn, given it to Reddy's Hyderabad-based firm.
Counsel for the three accused said they were ready to abide by the conditions imposed by the court if released on bail and would not tamper with evidence or threaten witnesses.
Opposing bail plea of Reddy, CBI prosecutor said though there was no direct allegation of involvement in the money trail against Reddy but 'he had received Rs 11.15 crore and he had also forged money receipts of Rs 31.44 crore in the names of two other persons.'
The prosecutor added that the accused were "deliberately" fleeing from the court proceedings and had even approached the Supreme Court and they surrendered before this court after they failed to get any relief from the apex court.
While Madan and Arya had surrendered on August 16 last year, Reddy had surrendered on August 20 last year.
The trio are accused of conspiring with Kalmadi and others in the case involving award of the contract to Swiss Timing at an estimated loss of over Rs 95 crore to the exchequer.
The other accused who are out on bail are Kalmadi, Verma, OC Director General (Procurement) Surjit Lal and Joint Director-General (Sports) A S V Prasad, OC treasurer M Jayachandran, former secretary general Lalit Bhanot. Besides them, two firms, AKR Constructions and Swiss Timing, are also accused in the case.