'Bribery at censor board worse than economic offences'

The special court here which is hearing the bail application of Rakesh Kumar, the suspended CEO of Central Board of Film Certification, today said the crime in this case was worse than economic offences.
Kumar is accused of taking bribes to grant censor certificate to films.
"The impact of the crime is depraving which destroys the coming generations, it is worse than economic offences," said special CBI judge R N Joshi.
Kumar's bail application says he has been framed up by a lobby of agents. The application, filed through his lawyer advocate Mahesh Vaswani, claims that the agents wanted him out of the way because he had initiated certain reforms to curb the red tape and increase the transparency.

CBI prosecutor Gul Asnani opposed the bail plea, saying that investigation was at a crucial stage and Kumar may tamper with the evidence and abscond if released.
The arguments will continue on September 5.

Kumar was arrested on August 18 by the CBI, four days after a censor board agent and a member of its advisory panel were arrested for taking bribe, allegedly on Kumar's behalf.
They have already got bail.
The CBI had last week also said that it might also file a case of disproportionate assets against Kumar after further probe.