A Rouse Avenue Court has denied bail to former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh’s lawyer Anand Daga and arrested CBI official Abhishek Tiwari in connection with an alleged document leak case related to the ongoing probe against former Minister .
Seeking bail for Anand Dilip Daga, it was submitted that the applicant’s custodial interrogation is complete during the 4-day police custody remand. Substantial investigation has also been completed and the same does not require the accused to be in custody as he is not in a position to influence the investigation or tamper with the evidence.
The witnesses are all official, therefore not approachable by the applicant. All the recoveries i.e. document and electronic gadgets have already been made and the applicant is, in these circumstances, not in a position to tamper or for that matter access the articles recovered. As such, there is no question of creating any impediment in the investigation in any manner. The custody of the accused in such circumstances appears more to be punitive than facilitating the investigation.
It was submitted that Anand Dilip Daga is a lawyer of more than 8 years of standing and his father is also a lawyer at High Court, he has deep roots in the society as he, apart from parents/siblings, has wife and kids to take care of. In such circumstances , when there is no apprehension of tampering or any kind of threat to the witnesses, coupled with the fact that no recovery is to be effected and the applicant is ready and willing to join and cooperate in the investigation, apart from complying with any other condition which may be there, therefore he deserves to be considered for grant of bail, claimed his advocate Tanveer Ahmed.
Contesting the bail application, the CBI Special Public Prosecutor said enormous amount of data is to be analyzed which has been recovered from various electronic devices and otherwise. The complicity of other persons cannot be ruled out at this stage and so is the case with regard to the witnesses as there may be witnesses from the public as well, who are vulnerable, as compared to official witnesses.
The CBI SPP submitted that the investigation is being at its infancy and is being unravelled, therefore the applicant/accused does not deserve to be released on bail, at this stage.
Special CBI Judge Vimal Kumar Yadav observed that it is evident that investigation is still inconclusive , recoveries connect the applicant / accused with the alleged offence and given the fact that the applicant / accused himself knew being a lawyer and being well-acquainted with the legal process, it cannot be ruled out that he may try to scuttle or influence the investigation which is not confined to a particular geographical area.
“Therefore, considering the entire gamut of facts and circumstances, the applicant / accused does not deserve to be considered for bail, at this stage. The application is accordingly declined,”
-the order reads.
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The CBI had arrested Daga and Tiwari earlier this week from Mumbai and Delhi respectively in a FIR alleging they had entered into a criminal conspiracy for the purpose of disclosing case sensitive and confidential documents .
Daga and Tiwari were earlier remanded to 14 days of judicial custody after the Court on September 6 declined the plea of CBI which had sought the custody of the two accused for five more days.
Accordingly, both were directed to be produced on September 20 in view of 14 days of judicial custody.