Middlemen8217; bail plea rejected

CHANDIGARH, May 13: The bail plea of alleged middlemen Suresh Kumar Sharma and Dinesh Sharma was dismissed by UT Additional District and Ses...

CHANDIGARH, May 13: The bail plea of alleged middlemen Suresh Kumar Sharma and Dinesh Sharma was dismissed by UT Additional District and Sessions Judge M.R. Batra in the UT Engineering Department kickback case today.

The duo had earlier been remanded to judicial custody till May 16 by UT Judicial Magistrate Ist Class Jasbir Singh. They had surrendered before the court on April 27 after being booked by the Vigilance Department under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Sections 406, 409, 420 and 120-B of the IPC.

According to the prosecution, certain diaries mentioning the names of UT Administration officials receiving illegal gratification along with the amount, were recovered during the raids on their residence by the Income-Tax authorities in November 1997.

Seeking their release on bail, the defence counsel had contended that the duo were being falsely implicated in the case.

The counsel had stated that the accused could not be booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act as they were not public servants. The prosecution had not disclosed the name of the firms which had made the payment. Government money had not been embezzled as the same was not involved, he had added.

It was stated that the accused had been thoroughly interrogated by Vigilance officials during their police remand from April 27 till May 4. It was stated that their anticipatory bail had earlier been declined by the Special Judge and the Punjab and Haryana High Court only because they were required for interrogation.

Opposing the bail plea, district attorney Harmohinder Singh had contended that the prime accused in the case, chief engineer K.K. Jerath, was yet to be arrested.

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He had added that the alleged middlemen were involved in procuring the orders and were a part of the conspiracy.

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