Kingfisher Airlines case: CFO files for bail again

The court had observed that Raghunathan along with IDBI Bank former chairman Yogesh Agarwal and deputy general manager BK Batra, had influenced the decision-making process and were part of key activities related to the loan granted to Kingfisher Airlines by the bank. Raghunathan has, however, claimed that the funds received through the loan were used by the company to ‘meet the liabilities of various creditors’. He has further said he was merely an employee who ‘acted in discharge of his duties’. Vijay Mallya, the chairman and MD of Kingfisher Airlines, has been named in the chargesheet as an absconding accused with the CBI claiming that meetings were held by him along with the other accused including Raghunathan to facilitate the loan.

Raghunathan, lodged at Arthur Road jail since January, has said in his plea that while the court had declined to release him since the CBI had claimed that they wanted to interrogate employees of the bank and the airlines, the central agency has not filed any remand application or progress report. “…The last time he was interrogated was on January 23, prior to that he had visited the CBI office during preliminary inquiry and cooperated with investigations for over a period of eight weeks…He has been in custody since January 23 and till date not even a progress report has been submitted to the court regarding investigations on the basis of which they (CBI) sought rejection of bail,” the application states.

It states that while Letters Rogatory to other countries were issued 9-10 months prior to his arrest, international investigations can go on without his detention since he would not have any control over entities and institutions outside India. The CBI has sought time till next week to file a reply. The bail pleas of the other two accused, Agarwal and Batra, are currently pending before the Bombay High Court.