Syndicate Bank ex-CMD, others appear before courts in bribery case

Syndicate Bank's sacked chairman-cum-managing director S.K. Jain, Bhushan Steel Ltd. vice chairman Neeraj Singhal and others on Monday appeared before the court in pursuance of summons against them in connection with a 2014 corruptioncase.

Along with Jain and Singhal, middleman Vineet Godha, Puneet Godha, Vijay Pahuja and Pankaj Kumar Tiwari appeared before Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special judge Gurdeep Singh.

The court had issued summons against them last month after taking cognisance of charge sheet filed against them.

The CBI supplied the documents to the accused, and the court posted the matter December 3 for further hearing.

The CBI, last month filed a set of charges in the case, naming Jain, Singhal, the two Godhas, Pahuja and Tiwari as accused in the case. All the six were charge sheeted under various section dealing with criminal conspiracy and various provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with bribery and criminal misconduct.

The agency has alleged that Jain has received a bribe of Rs.50 lakh through conduits and abused his official position to enhance the credit limits of some companies in violation of laid-down procedures.

Jain's services were terminated in September 2014, when he was arrested by the agency in the case.

All the accused are out on bail. Jain was arrested on August 2 and granted bail on October 1.