Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 11 (IANS) The Supreme Court Thursday declined the interim bail pleas of two officials of a company allegedly involved in a corruption case related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG) here.

Anil Kumar Madan and Purshotam Dev Arya of Gem International, which was the Indian representative of a Swiss company that supplied time equipment for the sporting event, had sought interim bails.

The apex court of Justice J.M. Panchal and Justice H.L. Gokhale, while declining to grant interim bail to the two, said that the trial court would decide their bail application “as early as possible without any avoidable delay”.

The order said that the trial court would decide the bail plea without being influenced by the observations made by the Delhi High Court.

Madan moved the apex court after he was declared absconder after he failed to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) upon his return from Switzerland where he had gone for eye surgery.

Appearing for Madan, senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi said his client was asked to appear before the investigating agency April 4 - the day he returned from Switzerland after his eye surgery.

He said his client suffered from multiple ailments that included hunch back, four stenting of his coronary arteries, detachment of retina, hyper-tension and other ailments.

The court was told that Madan and Arya were the agents of the Swiss company and were paid Rs.23 crore for their services. The court was told that tax was also paid on those Rs.23 crore to the authorities.

Rohtagi told the court that the contract to Omega was cleared by five different committees of the government and his client had no role in it. He said that when there was nothing against the Swiss company that was awarded contract, how could its sub-contractor be hauled up.

Rohtagi told the court that the charge against his client was very vague, which said that he was paid an inflated amount by the Swiss company for his services.

“If contract to Swiss Omega is validly granted, then what transpired between me (Rohtagi’s client) and the Swiss time company is not a matter of concern to them (the investigating agency).”

The court referred to the high court verdict and said that the petitioners were not cooperating with the investigating agency and dismissed the plea as withdrawn.