Excise Department superintendent and middleman sent to CBI custody for 3 more days

A Delhi court today allowed the CBI to interrogate for three more days in custody a Central Excise Department superintendent and an alleged middleman, arrested in connection with receiving around Rs 40 lakh as bribe for not taking action against two businessmen. Special judge Talwant Singh extended the CBI custody of superintendent Lallan Ojha and alleged middleman Hemant Gandhi after they were produced before him.

Seeking extension of the duo’s custody, the CBI told the court that they have received details of 96 phone calls of the five accused, including Central Excise Delhi-I Commissioner Anup Kumar Srivastava, who is undergoing treatment in a hospital here.

“The probe is going on. We have received details of 96 calls and we have to confront them with it. Some new facts have also emerged,” the CBI prosecutor said.

The defence counsel opposed the CBI’s plea saying no valid reason was given by the agency to extend the remand.

Counsel for both Ojha and Gandhi said the agency had kept their clients in its custody and no more confrontation is required to be done now.

“They (CBI) must specifically spell out in the remand application as to what they have done in the last four days.

If at all, any confrontation was needed, it would have been done in the last four days,” the defence counsel said.

During the proceedings, the CBI said Srivastava was still admitted in hospital while two businessmen Dalip Aggarwal and Anand Aggarwal, named as accused in the case, has not been arrested.