NEW DELHI, Aug 19:
Micromax co-founder Rajesh Agarwal and five others, arrested by CBI in connection with a bribery case, were today remanded in judicial custody till September 2 after the agency said they are not required for further custodial interrogation.
The six accused were produced before the court after expiry of their CBI custody which was granted on August 14.
Special CBI Judge Poonam Bamba, however, extended till August 23 the agency’s custody of another accused M K Gupta, Assistant Engineer in North Delhi Municipal Corporation(NDMC).
CBI sought extension of Gupta’s custody, saying two accused, who were part of the alleged conspiracy, are still absconding and they need to interrogate him to arrest them.
Apart from Agarwal, co-founder of Micromax Technologies Pvt Ltd, the five other accused who have been sent to judicial custody are his associate Manish Tuli, NDMC’s Superintendent Engineer Rajesh Wadhwa, its two engineers Satish Kumar and Naresh Kumar, and Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) junior engineer Rajesh Gupta.
The court had on August 14 remanded NDMC’s engineer Sanjay Kumar and private person Ashok Lamba in judicial custody till August 27.
Wadhwa and M K Gupta were arrested on August 13 from a hotel in Jaipur where they were allegedly hiding.
Agarwal, who has stepped down as the Managing Director of Micromax mobiles following his arrest, Tuli and other accused were arrested on August 7 when they were allegedly giving a bribe of Rs 30 lakh to NDMC officials for regularisation of an unauthorised property.
CBI had earlier told the court that Agarwal and Tuli were arrested while allegedly giving the bribe for regularisation of a banquet hall owned by Tuli. It also alleged that the DDA official was acting
as a middleman.
The accused have been booked for the offences under the IPC and various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, including public servant taking illegal gratification and misusing official position.
CBI had said that FIR was registered on a source information that Agarwal and Tuli had entered into a deal with engineers of the civic body to get clearance for construction of the banquet hall in Wazirpur area in exchange of bribe of Rs 50 lakh.
It had told the court that during the probe, Rs 1.1 crore had been recovered from the accused.
Agarwal had stepped down as the MD of the company which, in a statement, had stated that Tuli has no association with the firm.
(PTI)
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