Court grants bail to IRS officer

A Delhi court today granted bail to an IRS officer, arrested for allegedly accepting bribe from multi-crore StockGuru scam accused Ullas Prabhakar for favouring him in the probe.
The court granted bail to Yogendra Mittal, then Assistant Director of Income Tax, observing there was a delay of over 20 months in getting information about his alleged role in the case and the CBI has not been able to put forth any material to suggest that he may hamper the ongoing probe.
"In view of the elicited law, including on subject of bail and as contained in relied precedents, in the backdrop of the period of detention of A-2 (Mittal), in the facts and circumstances of the case, accused Yogendra Mittal is admitted to bail on furnishing a personal bond and a surety bond each of Rs one lakh...," special CBI judge G P Singh said.

The court did not accept CBI's contention that Mittal, being an IRS officer, may tamper with the evidence if released on bail at this stage.
"No material has been put forth by investigating agency to substantiate their apprehension that A-2 (Mittal) may tamper evidence or hamper investigation if released on bail," the court said.
According to CBI, the case was lodged on January 9 last year on a complaint by the Economic Offence Wing (EoW) of Delhi Police regarding alleged illegal gratification paid to Mittal by Ullas.

During the probe into the StockGuru scam case, Ullas had disclosed about alleged misappropriation of cash by Income Tax officials during raids at his office and residence on January 18-19, 2011, CBI said, adding that during the search, he had offered bribe to Mittal to help him in the matter.

During the arguments on the bail plea, advocate Vijay Aggarwal, who appeared for Mittal, argued that the alleged disclosure statement of Ullas was not admissible in law and the FIR has been lodged on the basis of "hearsay evidence".
Aggarwal also argued that no money has been recovered from or at the instance of Mittal and his client has been falsely implicated in the case.