Mumbai, Oct 02: The Mumbai High Court has rejected the bail of three accused in the multi-crore answer paper scam that rocked Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) saying at this stage they could not be granted liberty due to the ongoing investigations. The bail petitions of Baban Kadam, suspended Assistant Commissioner of Police, state CID, Pramod Kadam, Sub-Inspector of Police and Nitin Sathe, alleged middleman, were rejected by Justice Vijaya Tahilramani on September 30.
The judge observed that the probe is still on and the high court is monitoring the investigations. She said the designated court hearing the case had allowed Anti-Corruption Bureau to carry out further investigation till November 30. As regards the plea of the accused that they were sick and not getting medical treatment in jail, the judge said if need be, they could be sent to government-owned JJ Hospital for check up and further treatment.
The trio had connived with 21 others to substitute answer papers of 399 candidates who had appeared for 1999 written tests conducted by MPSC for the posts of Mantralaya assistants, sub-inspectors of police and sales tax officers. According to ACB, incriminating material had been seized from Kadam's house including duplicate keys of MPSC office and photostat copies of answer sheets.
Sathe was arrested in 1996 in a similar case and was on bail in that matter. At least 15 witnesses had given statements implicating Sathe in the scam and accusing him of having links with MPSC member and co-accused Sayalee Joshi. Pramod Kadam allegedly passed on bribe amount to co-accused Farooq Kadge. Bureau Report