Court refuses scribe's CBI custody, sends him to 14-days in jail

A city court today sent journalist Upendra Rai, arrested for his alleged involvement in dubious financial transactions, to 14-day judicial custody after rejecting CBI's plea for his custody for five more days.

"I am rejecting your application," Special CBI Judge Santosh Snehi Mann said in response to the investigative agency's argument that the scribe's custodial interrogation was necessary to carry forward the investigation. The court thereafter sent him to judicial custody till May 23.

CBI counsel Manoj Shukla sought 5-day custody of Rai, saying certain new grounds had come up and the journalist was required to be confronted with them. It also said that the journalist's bank locker had to be searched for which his presence was required, but Rai's counsel argued that they could open the locker without his presence.

The CBI had on May 3 arrested the Delhi-based scribe for allegedly indulging in dubious financial transactions and getting an airport access pass made by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) by furnishing false information.

The court had earlier sent Rai to three-day CBI custody after the agency said several incriminating material were recovered during the probe and he has not been cooperating in the investigation.

The Supreme Court had on May 4 refused to interfere with his arrest. In his application seeking protection from arrest, Rai had claimed he was framed in the case as he has been writing against an ED officer who was part of the team probing the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.

Prasun Roy, chief security officer of Air One Aviation Pvt Ltd, was also booked by the CBI in the case. The probe agency had carried out searches at eight locations in Lucknow, Noida, Delhi and Mumbai.

In its FIR, the agency has alleged that going by the value of the transactions of over Rs one lakh during 2017, Rai's accounts received Rs 79 crore while Rs 78.51 crore was debited from it during the same period.