Allowing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a through interrogation, a Delhi court on Tuesday sent Rajendra Kumar and four others to five-day CBI custody. The agency sought remand stating that Kumar and others are trying to “intimidate” the witnesses and it needs to confront the accused with each other and the documents recovered.
Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar passed the order after the probe agency moved an application seeking 10-day custody for Kumar, Tarun Sharma, Ashok Kumar, Dinesh Kumar Gupta and Sandeep Kumar.
The CBI submitted that although Kumar and others are joining the investigation, they are not cooperating and it needs to know the exact chain of events in the offence.
The agency said that there have been several instances of Kumar intimidating the witnesses. “Being a public servant, he is at a powerful position and can influence anyone and intimidate the witnesses,” said CBI in its submission.
On this, the judge asked “is there any incident of intimidating witnessesIJ” Responding to the query, the agency officer said, “Yes, we have recorded the statements of such witnesses.”
According to CBI, some incriminating recoveries are likely to be made under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act and a lot other evidences have been recovered showing that undue advantage was given to Endeavour Systems Pvt ltd. “People well acquainted with Rajendra Kumar were given favours and several contracts were awarded by violating tender norms,” it said.
Observing that the money trail has to be ascertained, it said the agency had the audio tapes of conversations between Kumar and other accused persons. The probe agency’s counsel submitted that to unearth the larger conspiracy and the role of accused persons custodial interrogation is needed.
While pleading against Kumar and others, CBI lawyer said, “The Delhi Government is creating media hype as if Rajendra Kumar is a sheshnag (five-headed snake) holding the Government up on his head and if he goes then the Government will go.” However, the claims made by CBI were refuted by Defence counsels.
Rajendra Kumar’s counsel, Mohit Mathur submitted that the raids were conducted on all places of accused and documents had already been seized by CBI. “Kumar had already joined the probe and everything was done as per law. There is not even a single paper on record which would show any relation between my client and the other accused. There is no ground for grant of custody of the accused person,” he said.
Mathur further added that the arrest is illogical as the central agency should have issued a notice to Kumar and if he disobeyed then they could have arrested him.
Senior lawyer Ramesh Gupta representing Tarun Sharma argued that there was no need for arrest as the investigation is pending for the last six months and accused had already joined the investigation.
Counsels of other accused persons also submitted that the arrest is unfair and their clients are joining the investigation. Dinesh Kumar Gupta’s lawyer alleged that Gupta was subjected to a third degree treatment by CBI during which he lost his ability to hear from one of his ears.
In the meanwhile, Gupta also made a brief statement in the court stating that he is being pressurised by the CBI to turn as an approver in the matter.
The five men were arrested by the probe agency on December 14 last year in a case of showing undue favours to a private company in award of Government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore.
Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS officer of UT cadre, was called along with Tarun Sharma besides three other private persons for questioning at the CBI headquarters on Monday.