HC asks CBI to verify inventory of bail bonds

Hearing a PIL alleging fake bail bond scam at suburban Kurla station, the Bombay High Court today granted one-week time to CBI to verify a huge inventory of bail bonds that were printed in government press and supplied to Railway Police Force, Mumbai Division.
The bench of Justice P V Hardas and P N Deshmukh asked CBI to inform by Monday whether it had verified the consignment of 4.11 lakh bail bonds.
The court has initiated this exercise as the PIL urged that it was necessary to know whether this consignment was also used in the scam or whether these bail bonds were really executed and the money realised therefrom was deposited in the Railway Courts at Kalyan and CST stations.

Although the fraud was detected in Kurla, CBI has been asked to verify all RPF posts where such bail bonds had been supplied.
Additional Solicitor General Kevic Setalvad argued that since the CBI is investigating the case, nothing survived in the PIL and the matter should be disposed of.
However, the petitioner, Samir Zaveri, pointed out that he learnt through RTI about the consignment of 4.11 lakh bail bonds being supplied to RPF by the government printing press.

It was very necessary to find out whether these bail bonds were also used in the scam, he said.
According to Zaveri, some RPF personnel at suburban Kurla station pretended to be staff of a non-existing Railway Magistrate Court and collected money for cash bonds from those arrested for trespassing or crossing tracks.

Under the scam that allegedly took place between 2008 and 2009, a head constable acted as 'magistrate' and granted 'bail' to offenders after they paid the bond money which was eventually pocketed by the RPF personnel.
In August 2011, the high court handed over the investigation to CBI following allegations of shoddy probe by the Government Railway Police. The court had pulled up the CBI too on several occasions for tardy probe.