No chargesheet on time,scam accused get bail

The court granted bail to Colonel Kulbir Singh,staff officer to the commandant at NDA,Balkrishna Kanojia,who runs a food stall in Pune,Kanojia’s employee Vishnu Prasad Sharma and NDA employees Ramesh Gaikwad,Manoj and Dattatraya Shitkal.

The court ordered to release Col Singh against a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh,solvency of Rs 1 lakh and a further cash security of Rs 1 lakh,while the other five were released against a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh,solvency of Rs 50,000 and cash security of Rs 50,000 respectively. CBI special prosecutor Vivek Saxena had pressed for higher value of bonds as it was a serious offence.

The other two arrested accused – Suhas Waghmare — NDA establishment officer and Col Anil Kumar Singh — physical training officer at NDA,are likely to be released on bail tomorrow and on September 2 respectively.

The CBI had conducted raids at 14 places in Pune,Mumbai,Gurgaon and Sonepat and arrested the eight accused in Pune.

The CBI had alleged that about Rs 1.76 crore was allegedly taken by officials and their touts for recruiting group D staff such as cooks,gardeners,library and laboratory attendants,cadet orderly and lower division clerks.

“Col Kulbir Singh had obtained illegal gratification of Rs 3-4 lakh from each candidate to give them the said jobs. The accused allegedly took signatures of favoured candidates on blank answer sheets and later filled them with correct answers through fraudulent means,” the CBI officials told the court.

About Rs 4 lakh was seized from the residence of Col Kulbir Singh,while Rs 50 lakh was recovered from Kanojia and Rs 18 lakh from Gaikwad’s residence,while Rs 3 lakh and Rs 3.20 lakh were recovered from the houses of Manoj Shitkal and Vishnu Sharma respectively,the CBI official added.