Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought CBI's response on the bail plea of the sacked CWG Organising Committee chief
Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought CBI's response on the bail plea of the sacked CWG Organising Committee chief
Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking its response to the bail plea of Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi, accused of corruption in the organisation of the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games (CWG). The High Court cited the Supreme Court ruling that bail should be the rule and jail an exception.u00a0
Justice Mukta Gupta issued the notice to the CBI seeking its reply by January 6, 2012. Kalmadi, who headed the CWG Organising Committee (OC), is lodged in Tihar Jail. Kalmadi's counsel sought bail, claiming that his custody is no more required in the case as the CBI on November 3 has informed the trial court that investigation is complete.
Senior counsel Sushil Kumar, appearing for Kalmadi, said that his client has been in custody since April 26 and a charge sheet has also been filed. He said the trial would take a long time as a foreign firm, Swiss Timing Omega, is also an accused in the case and it has not yet appeared before the court.
The counsel sought that the court hear the bail plea in December, saying it need not go into the merits of the case basing on the Supreme Court ruling, while granting bail to five accused in the 2G case, that bail is the rule and jail is an exception.
Sporting gesture!
However, Justice Gupta, said, "Merits of each case have to be looked into" and fixed January 6 as the next date of hearing. Kalmadi was arrested on April 26 for his alleged role in awarding the contract for installing the Timing-Scoring-Result (TSR) system to Swiss Times Omega at an exorbitant cost of Rs 141 crore, allegedly causing a loss of over Rs 95 crore to the public exchequer.u00a0
CBI had filed its first charge sheet against Kalmadi and ten others on May 20, describing him as main accused in the corruption case, involving the award of TSR system contract to the Swiss firm.
The trial court had on June 6 dismissed Kalmadi's bail plea on the ground that gravity of offence is of very serious nature as it had caused loss to state exchequer and unlawful gain to a private vendor to the tune of over Rs 95 crore. Kalmadi and eight other accused persons including officials of Organising Committee (OC) are lodged in Tihar Jail and are currently in judicial custody.u00a0
