Pragati Maidan revamp graft: Court grants bail to middleman

A Delhi court today granted bail to a suspected middleman in an alleged case of corruption in the Rs 2,150-cr revamp project of ITPO complex at Pragati Maidan in which NBCC Chairman-cum-Managing Director Anoop Mittal has also been made an accused.
Special judge Arvind Kumar granted relief to Ghaziabad- based Rishabh Agrawal on a personal bond of Rs one lakh and a surety of the same amount.
The court has posted for tomorrow the order on bail plea of Sanjay Kulkarni, managing director of Capacite Structures.
The court had on January 5 reserved its order on the bail applications of Kulkarni and Agrawal after hearing arguments from defence advocates and the CBI.

The probe agency opposed the applications saying that the accused might hamper the investigation which, it claimed, was in initial stage, and cited the possibility that both might flee from justice.
The agency had booked Mittal, Kulkarni, Agrawal, and two others-- public servants Pradeep Mishra and Akashdeep Chouhan who allegedly delivered the bribe -- in the case on December 22.

It alleged in the FIR that the contract to redevelop the prime land at Pragati Maidan was awarded to Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Pvt. Ltd. and Shapoorji Pallonji Qatar WLL for Rs 2,149.93 crore by NBCC.
Mumbai-based Capacite Structures was trying to get that work from Shapoorji Pallonji on sub-contract.

Kulkarni had approached Agrawal, the suspected middleman having good contacts with public servants, for getting the sub-contract in favour of the company, it alleged.
The FIR alleged that Agrawal approached Pradeep Kumar Mishra, a public servant in an intelligence agency who was on deputation and was also close to certain senior functionaries of NBCC Ltd.
Under the influence of Mishra, Mittal "strongly directed" the executive director of NBCC to settle the matter in favour of Capacite Structures, it alleged.