A special CBI court on Saturday rejected the bail application of six out of eight arrested accused in the Adarsh society scam case. While rejecting the bail applications of the six accused, who include politicians, bureaucrats and defence personnel, the court held that the accused might tamper with the evidence.
The arrested accused in the Adarsh society scam had filed bail
applications after the two-member inquiry commission in its report held that the land of the society belonged to the state government and that the society was not reserved for Kargil war heroes. However, the court said that the inquiry commission’s report was not binding on the court.
Ramanand Tiwari, Jairaj Phatak, T.K. Kaul, Pradeep Vyas, P.V.
Deshmukh, Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, Madan Mohan Wanchoo and R.C. Thakur had applied for the bail in the start of the week. The court will decide on the bail applications of Wanchoo and Thakur on Monday.
In their application, the accused had claimed that they had not got flats in the Adarsh society as a quid-pro-quo arrangement, but they had bought them legally.
The CBI, while opposing the bail applications of the accused in their reply, stated, “The reports produced by the Adarsh Comm-ission and investigation performed by the CBI are entirely two different cases.
The investigation carried out by the CBI is under Criminal Procedure Code and hence the findings of the reports will not have any bearing on the investigation. There are some important witnesses who are still to be examined by the CBI and the release of accused on bail would severely prejudice the investigation. Also the accused may tamper with the material evidence in the case.” The reply also claimed that, the accused while they were in CBI custody have revealed some facts, which need verification. The court also cannot rule out the possibility of the accused threatening the witnesses.
Judge M.V. Kulkarni, while rejecting the bail, has accepted the contention of the CBI and rejected the bail application.