A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to Manoj Prasad, the alleged middleman in the ₹5 crore bribery case involving CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana.
Special Judge Santosh Snehi Mann granted bail to Mr. Prasad saying that no purpose would be served by keeping him in further custody. The same judge had earlier refused to grant him bail saying it was not a fit stage to release him. The Delhi High Court too had rejected his bail application.
The probe agency had opposed Mr. Prasad’s bail application. It had argued that the accused was an influential person and if granted bail, there was an apprehension that he might tamper with evidence or flee from justice.
In his bail application, Mr. Prasad argued that he was not required for custodial interrogation, so no purpose would be served by keeping him in further custody. The court had on October 31 granted bail to his co-accused and CBI Deputy Superintendent of Police Devender Kumar after the agency did not oppose his bail petition.
The court had said while granting bail to Mr. Kumar, “Nothing incriminating has come or surfaced during investigation against him till date. Even in the FIR, there is no allegation of demand of illegal gratification by the applicant/accused, neither is any allegation that any money was given to the applicant/accused.”
The CBI registered an FIR against Mr. Asthana and others in the matter on a written complaint by businessman Sathish Sana on October 15. Besides Mr. Asthana, Mr. Prasad and Mr. Kumar, another alleged middleman, Somesh Prasad, has been also named as an accused in the case
The FIR alleges that Mr. Kumar, being the Investigating Officer in the case against meat exporter Moin Qureshi, repeatedly called the complainant to the CBI office to harass him and compel him to pay a bribe of ₹5 crore for getting a clean chit in the case. He is also an accused in the case. The complaint also alleged that a part of the bribe had been paid by Sathish Sana.