B L Agrawal, others granted bail in bribery case

Suspended principal secretary of Chhattisgarh govt B L Agrawal and three others were today granted bail by a special court here in an alleged bribery case.
Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal granted the relief to the accused on a personal bond of Rs one lakh and one surety of like amount each, saying no fruitful purpose will be served by keeping them in custody.
Besides Agrawal, the other persons who were granted bail were his relative Anand Agrawal, alleged middleman Bhagwan Singh and one Syed Burhanuddin, who had claimed to be an official working in the Prime Minister's Office.
The court, however, put several conditions on them including not to leave the country without its prior permission and warning them not to influence the investigation or contact any witnesses.

The court had earlier taken cognisance of the charge sheet filed by CBI under the sections dealing with offences of criminal conspiracy and taking illegal gratification to influence public servant.
In its charge sheet, the agency has alleged that Agrawal, a 1988 batch IAS officer, wanted to "settle" an ongoing CBI probe against him.

According to the CBI, the officer was facing probe in two cases registered in 2010 when he was the Health Secretary in the state government. He has been charge sheeted in one case, while the probe is going on in the other.
The agency has alleged that the officer had allegedly approached Singh, a resident of Noida, who took him to Burhanuddin to get a graft case "settled".

Burhanuddin, who has many aliases, claimed that he would help him settle the case in his favour. Burhanuddin aka O P Singh aka O P Sharma had demanded Rs 1.5 crore as illegal gratification for his services, the CBI had alleged.
Anand had played a key role in the offence and a huge amount of cash was recovered from his possession, it had claimed.