Munmun Kaur
Published On: January 17, 2022 at 13:14 IST
A Delhi High Court, on January 16, remanded the three accused in the GAIL corruption case to the custody of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for 7 days.
N Ramakrishnan Nair, Pawan Gaur, and Rajesh Kumar who were arrested on January 15 were presented before Special Judge Vinod Yadav the very next day. Judge Yadav allowed the application of the CBI for custody of the Accused persons for 7 days. Besides these three, Judge Yadav also rejected the Bail plea of ES Ranganathan, who was arrested on January 16, on the grounds that he allegedly obtained bribes from private companies engaged in buying petrochemical products marketed by GAIL.
Public Prosecutor Neetu Singh, appearing for the CBI told the Court that at least 7 days of custody of the three accused were required to unearth their roles in the corruption case as the investigation is at an initial and crucial stage. She further told the Court that an unaccounted sum of Rs 75 lakhs was recovered from the residence of Nair, the source of which is yet to be unearthed.
The Court Order read, “All the said three accused persons are accordingly remanded to the custody of IO/CBI for a period of seven days, starting from today, i.e from 16.01.2022 to 22.01.2022”. Further, the accused persons would also be entitled to a legal interview with their counsel and would be allowed to meet with one of their family members every 48 hours. Although, the Court emphasized every care to be taken to ensure that the liberties granted do not hamper the investigation in any way and that all Covid-19 protocols framed by the government be strictly followed.