New Delhi, Nov 3: Delhi's Patiala House Court on Saturday reserved the order on bail plea of alleged middleman Manoj Prasad, arrested in the bribery case against CBI Dy Director Rakesh Asthana.

On Friday, the CBI had told the special CBI judge Santosh Snehi Mann that the accused was an influential person and if granted the relief, he may tamper with the ongoing probe and flee from justice.

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The court put up the application for argument on Saturday after the counsel for Manoj Prasad said he needed time to go through the CBI's reply and advance his arguments.
Manoj Prasad is currently in judicial custody.

The court had on October 31 granted bail to co-accused and CBI's DSP Devender Kumar after the agency did not oppose his bail petition.

In his bail application, Manoj Prasad said he was not required for the custodial interrogation and no purpose will be served by keeping him in further custody.

The CBI had registered an FIR against Rakesh Asthana and others on a written complaint of businessman Sathish Sana on October 15.

Besides Rakesh Asthana, Manoj Prasad and Devender Kumar, another middleman Somesh Prasad has also been named as an accused in the case.

The FIR had alleged that Devender Kumar, being the IO in the case against meat exporter Moin Qureshi, was repeatedly calling the complainant to the CBI office to harass him and compel him to pay a bribe of Rs. five crore for getting a clean chit in the case.