Graft case: Court seeks CBI's reply on accused bail plea

New Delhi: A special court on Thursday sought CBI's response on the bail pleas of two persons arrested in a corruption case involving Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's former Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar.

Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar issued notice to the probe agency and fixed the matter for hearing on July 25 on the bail applications of Kumar's close aide Ashok Kumar and Managing Director of a PSU R S Kaushik.

The court, which was scheduled to hear arguments on Kumar's bail plea, will now take up the application for hearing on Saturday after CBI sought an adjournment.

The court, meanwhile, ordered defreezing of the bank account of Dinesh Kumar Gupta, an accused in the case, noting that it was not part of case property.

Advocate Harsh Kumar Sharma, who appeared for Gupta, said his client and his family were going through a tough time.

However, CBI opposed the plea for defreezing the bank account, saying that it was investigating the money trail.

Besides the four accused, CBI had also arrested former Deputy Secretary in Kejriwal's office Tarun Sharma and co-owner of the private firm, Sandeep Kumar. All the six accused are at present in the judicial custody.

According to CBI, the five accused were allegedly showing undue favours to private firm Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd (ESPL) which the agency alleged was floated by Kumar for the award of government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore.

CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others in December last year alleging that the officer had abused his official position by "favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments".