CBI coal probe officer gets bail

A CITY court Thursday granted bail to Vivek Dutt,the CBI officer who was part of the team probing the coal block allotment scandal and was arrested on charges of bribery.

Dutts bail application had been refused last month. His counsel,Prashant Mendiratta,claimed that the CBI had falsely implicated Dutt to remove him from the team probing the scandal. As per Mendiratta,no recovery implicating Dutt was made from his house or phone records,and he had cooperated in the investigation.

Dutt was arrested on May 17 on the charge that he,along with CBI Inspector Rajesh Chandra Karnatak and alleged middleman Rajesh Pachisia,had taken a bribe from a businessman for settling a land dispute case. Dutt had allegedly pressured the businessman for a Rs 15 lakh bribe. The prosecution insisted that evidence existed against Dutt and inquiry into his phone records were in progress.