A Delhi court has rejected the bail plea of two top executives of Turkish firm Karsan, currently lodged in high security Tihar Jail in New Delhi in connection with the Rs 133 crore Urea Scam case. Special Judge V B Gupta rejected the bail application of Karsan executives Tuncay Alankus and Cihan Karanci saying that the accused might flee from justice if release on bail.
"Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, the gravity and seriousness of the offence and in view of the larger public interest and in the interest of the state, no ground is made out for granting bail to any of the two accused persons," Gupta observed in his 27-page order. In their application filed on November 15, the Turkish nationals had sought their release on the ground that all the six Indian accused are already enlarged on bail. But CBI had vehemently opposed their application saying that if released they might flee from justice. The agency had also pointed out that their bail plea was recently rejected by the high court and the Supreme Court. Lodged in Tihar Jail ever since their extradition from Switzerland in October 1997, the duo had also claimed that the matter was purely civil in nature, which has been turned into a criminal case by the CBI. National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL) had signed a contract with Karsan in October 1995 for supply of two lakh metric tonnes of urea and had advanced 38 million US dollars (Rs 133 crore) to? the Turkish company. However, not even a single grain of urea was supplied by Karsan to NFL. Bureau Report