One more colonel held in NDA scam

PUNE: A special court on Monday rejected the interim anticipatory bail application of Colonel Anil Kumar Singh, a physical training officer and presiding officer of the National Defence Academy (NDA) recruitment board, for his alleged involvement in the cash-for-jobs-scam. The CBI arrested Singh immediately after the hearing. Singh had obtained an interim bail till July 2.While granting bail, the special court had imposed several conditions, one of them being that he should cooperate with the CBI. However, the CBI on June 29 filed a plea to cancel Singh's bail application for not cooperating during the probe.
Senior public prosecutor Ijaz Khan told the court that Singh and the other accused were communicating using satellite phones to avoid tracking of their discussions. "The suspects spoke in codes. The CBI has in its possession, about 500 transcripts of these conversations," Khan said.
Khan said the custodial interrogation of Anil Kumar Singh is necessary because another suspect, Colonel Kulbir Singh, has told the interrogators that of the bribe amount received by him, Rs 52 lakh were given to Anil Kumar Singh. "The CBI had conducted searches of Singh's house, but are yet to recover the cash," Khan told the court.
Khan told the court that the CBI suspects involvement of one more person in the scam. And that interrogation of Singh can lead them to that person.
Khan said the CBI is also looking for a pen drive in which Anil Kumar Singh has transferred important data related to the recruitment. The CBI wanted to recover that pen drive. "If the bail application of the suspect is granted then it could hamper the investigations," Khan said.
Defence lawyer S K Jain told the court that the pen drive was very much at the office of his client Anil Kumar Singh. "The CBI officials can get it today. The CBI has already conducted searches at Singh's house, but nothing was found," Jain said. Jain argued that all the allegations made by the CBI against his client were vague and not specific. "There is no need of custodial interrogation of Singh," Jain said.
Special judge D R Mahajan said that he has seen one of the transcripts of the recorded conversations between Singh and other suspects. "The conversations, prima facie, revealed the involvement of Singh in committing the crime," said the judge. Anil Kumar Singh will be produced before the court on Tuesday for seeking custody. While rejecting the interim bail of Singh, the judge stated that considering the gravity of the offence that too committed by the senior officers of the rank of colonel, in the National Defence Academy, the custodial interrogation of Singh was necessary.
The CBI officials told TOI that they have carried out searches at Singh's ancestral house and in-law's house in Purnia and Saharsa districts of Bihar.
The other suspects, colonel Kulbir Singh, Balkishan Kanojia, Vishnu Prasad Sharma, Ramesh Gaikwad, Manoj Shitkal and Dattatreya Shitkal, were produced at the court onMonday. Kulbir Singh, Kanojia, Sharma and Gaikwad were sent to police custody till July 5. Manoj Shitkal and Dattatreya Shitkal have been remanded to judicial custody.