SC grants bail to aide of ex-NOIDA chief engineer in graft case

The Supreme Court today granted bail to a contractor in a corruption case, which also involves Yadav Singh, a former top officer of Noida, Greater Noida and the Yamuna Expressway Authority.

The top court said the accused had allegedly caused a loss of Rs 18.64 crore, but Rs 18.38 crore has been secured by Noida Authority and the Enforcement Directorate.

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said the remaining amount of Rs 26 lakh shall be deposited by the contractor, Pankaj Jain, an aide of former Chief Engineer Yadav Singh to the Noida authorities.

The apex court, which considered that Jain was 60 per cent permanently disabled, blamed him for trying to avoid the process of law after the matter was taken cognisance of and summons were issued.

It, however, considered that during the investigation from July 30, 2015, to March 15, 2016, he had cooperated with the investigation and the chargesheet was filed.

The apex court said, "the petitioner, during the period of trial, shall not enter NOIDA except on the dates of trial before the Special Court. Moreover, he shall not enter Ghaziabad for a period of six months initially". It also asked him to deposit his passport with the trial court.

Jain was partner in a Ghaziabad-based JSP Constructions company, which is also an accused in the graft case involving laying of underground cable on Master Plan-1 Road and other public works.

The CBI had filed a chargesheet against 14 persons in the case and the court had taken cognizance of it on March 29, 2016.

The chargesheet had claimed that the allotment of work was allegedly pre-decided, tender formalities wilfully violated, and the project estimate highly inflated for undue gains to the contractor.

The investigators had alleged that the process caused a loss of nearly Rs 19 crore to the government exchequer.