Bribery case: Court reserves order on bail plea of officer's

A special court will pronounce tomorrow its order on the bail application of an associate of suspended principal secretary in Chhattisgarh government B L Agrawal in connection with a bribery case.
Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal reserved the order on the bail plea of the officer's relative Anand Agrawal after hearing the arguments from the CBI and the accused.
The CBI has alleged that the 1988-batch IAS officer wanted to "settle" an ongoing CBI probe against him.
During the arguments, the CBI opposed Anand's bail plea, saying that the investigation is still going on as the charge sheet is yet to be filed.

It said that if released on bail, there were chances that the accused could flee from justice or hamper the ongoing probe and influence the witnesses in the case.
In the bail plea, the counsel appearing for Anand claimed that the investigation against him was already complete and he was not the main accused.

The application said that the allegations against Anand were not serious and that no purpose will be served by keeping him in further custody.
The CBI had claimed that the officer was facing probe in two cases registered in 2010, when he was the health secretary in the Chhattisgarh government. He has been chargesheeted in one while the probe is going on in the other.

The agency has alleged that the officer had approached Bhagwan Singh, a resident of Noida, who took him to Burhanuddin to get a graft case "settled".
Burhanuddin, who has many aliases, had claimed he was working in the Prime Minister's Office and would help him settle the case in his favour, the CBI FIR has alleged. Burhanuddin aka O P Singh aka O P Sharma had demanded Rs 1.5 crore as illegal gratification for his services, it has said.
At a meeting among the officer, Singh and Burhanuddin on February 11, the officer had agreed to pay the amount to get relief in the cases against him, it has alleged.

The CBI has said that B L Agrawal sent Rs 60 lakh in four instalments to Bhagwan Singh using the hawala channel. As the bureaucrat was unable to arrange the cash for the remaining payment, Burhanuddin and Singh agreed to accept two kgs of gold as illegal gratification, the FIR has stated.
Anand had played a key role in the offence and a huge amount of cash was recovered from his possession, it has claim.
The agency has registered a case of criminal conspiracy under the IPC and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act against the accused.