Documents leak case: Court to hear bail pleas on Apr 24

New Delhi, Apr 21: A Delhi court today said it would hear on April 24 the bail pleas of two accused arrested in the case in which classified government documents were allegedly procured and passed on to others.

Special CBI Judge S C Rajan, who was scheduled to hear the bail pleas today, fixed it for Friday after the probe agency sought an adjournment due to absence of regular prosecutor.

The prosecutor, who was present in the court in place of the regular counsel, said he was not aware of the facts and circumstances of the case so he was unable to argue on the bail pleas and requested for an adjournment.

The court allowed CBI's plea and fixed the case for April 24 for hearing bail pleas of Paresh Chimanlal Budhdev, partner in Mumbai-based Chitale and Associates, and government servant Lala Ram Sharma who are accused in the case.

Budhdev, Lala Ram, Chartered Accountant Khemchand Gandhi, two government servants -- Ashok Kumar Singh and Daljeet Singh -- and Ram Niwas are now in judicial custody.

Ashok Kumar Singh was working as under secretary in the Department of Disinvestment of the Finance Ministry, Lala Ram Sharma as a section officer in the Department of Economic Affairs and Daljeet Singh an upper division clerk in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce and Industries.

CBI had earlier told the court that a large number of "incriminating" documents have been seized during the probe and the accused were allegedly procuring and passing on classified documents to others.

CBI had said a well-organized racket was being operated out of Delhi with deals being fixed mostly in the country's financial capital Mumbai and Bengaluru.

The agency had conducted raids and arrested the accused after it lodged a case of criminal conspiracy and theft under IPC and misuse of official position under Prevention of Corruption Act against them.

CBI sources had said a trove of confidential documents and Rs 60 lakh in cash were recovered from Gandhi's residence.

It was alleged that the government servants were passing on documents relating to foreign investment policies in the ministries, to Gandhi who in turn passed them on to big corporates for a price.

PTI