High Court extends protection to 7 irri scam accused till March 5

NAGPUR: A day after special Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court here rejected bail pleas of seven accused in the multi-crore irrigation scam, the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court, on Thursday, granted them relief by extending interim protection till March 5. The relief came after the accused moved HC and sought urgent hearing. The HC also issued notice to ACB superintendent directing him to file reply by March 1.

The accused included — RJ Shah Company owners Tejaswini and Kalindi Shah (sisters), D Thakker Construction directors Vishal and Jigar Thakker (brothers), their father

Pravin

, employee Arun Kumar Gupta, and technical head

Ramesh Kumar

Soni, having power of attorney.

After moving their bail applications through senior counsel Anil

Mardikar

, assisted by Sumit Joshi, Akshaya Kshirsagar and Rishabh Khemuka, the accused were present in the court during the hearing. Their previous bail applications under Section 439 of the CrPC were disposed of by seventh additional sessions judge

TG Mitkari

on Wednesday, ruling that those were not maintainable.

Earlier, the petitioners had prayed for quashing of proceedings regarding an FIR lodged by ACB under the Prevention of Corruption Act in accordance with Sections 420, 468, 471, 109 and 120B of the IPC at Sadar police station. However, the then division bench of Justice

Ravi Deshpande

and Justice Zaka Haq informed the petitioners that it would be rejecting their pleas as they had failed to substantiate as to why the police complaints against them should be set aside. Subsequently, the petitioners withdrew the applications on March 23 last year.

The petitioners had filed another application in HC on February 7 seeking extension of protection from coercive action and early disposal of cases pending with the ACB court as the judge had proceeded on medical leave. Accordingly, the HC granted them protection till Thursday and directed the lower court to expedite the proceedings. While rejecting their prayers, the ACB court had extended protection till Friday, which the petitioners again challenged in the HC.

During the hearing, Mardikar contended that while refusing their bail pleas, the special court didn’t consider the fact that all applicants had surrendered before the court by signing on bail applications. After hearing the defence counsel, the judges said, “The protection which was in operation in favour of the applicants, as granted by this court on February 7, would continue. No coercive steps should be taken against the applicants till March 5.”

All accused were named in the ACB’s second charge sheet in the Rs70,000 crore scam related to tenders awarded in Vidarbha region on January 9. The 4,457-page charge sheet accused the contractor firms and VIDC officials of collusion for wrongfully floating tenders on the basis of forged documents. It charged them for tweaking rules to accommodate the Shah-Thakker JV.

As per the charge sheet, the tender was issued even before the technical approval was secured for the work. Investigation also indicated cartelization as the earnest money deposit (EMD) of the competing firms was also paid by the JV which bagged the deal. The cost of the project was increased without going through the laid down procedure. Moreover, the papers related to firm’s prior experience were also forged, as those mentioned the firm as a main contractor though it has been engaged as a sub-contractor.