Former Syndicate Bank MD sent to judicial custody

A court here Tuesday remanded sacked Syndicate Bank chairman-cum-managing director S.K. Jain and another accused to judicial custody after turning down a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea for police custody of the duo.

CBI Special Judge Swarna Kanta Sharma remanded Jain and middleman Vineet Godha to a day's judicial custody and refused to grant two days of custodial interrogation of the two.

The CBI has requested the court to extend police custody of Jain and Godha by two days saying that they are not co-operating in the probe and hiding facts.

They were produced before the court after expiry of a day's police custody granted for a face-to-face confrontation with Purushottam Lal Totlani, the alleged middleman in the Syndicate Bank bribery case.

The court had Saturday issued production warrant against Jain and Godha for Sep 22.

The judge, however, allowed the investigating agency's plea to quiz Totlani till Sep 24 in another case.

Totlani, who was evading arrest, surrendered last Wednesday. The court last month had rejected his anticipatory bail plea and initiated proceedings to declare him as a proclaimed offender in the case after issuing non-bailable warrants against him twice.

The CBI had told court that after surrender and during his police custody remand and after recording of statement of one witness, it has been found that Totlani was in contact with Godha, who also knew Jain.

The CBI has filed two separate cases in the matter and had arrested Jain Aug 2 for allegedly taking Rs.50 lakh in bribe for raising the credit limit of some companies in violation of the banking rules.

Bhushan Steel Ltd.'s vice-chairman Neeraj Singhal is also an accused in the case. Singhal was arrested Aug 7.