Coal scam: Court cancels bail of private company's director

This court has no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the bail granted to the accused Sanjeev Kumar Aggarwal deserves to be cancelled as he has violated the fundamental condition of bail, the judge said in the order passed on Tuesday.The court had in May 2017 taken cognizance of the offence under section 120-B criminal conspiracy and 420 cheating of IPC against AES Chhattisgarh Energy Pvt. Ltd.

A Delhi court has cancelled the bail granted to a director of a private company in a coal scam case, noting that he violated the "fundamental condition of bail" by trying to influence the witness.

Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj cancelled the bail granted to Sanjeev Kumar Aggarwal and directed the accused to be taken into custody. "This court has no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the bail granted to the accused Sanjeev Kumar Aggarwal deserves to be cancelled as he has violated the fundamental condition of bail," the judge said in the order passed on Tuesday.

The court had in May 2017 taken cognizance of the offence under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of IPC against AES Chhattisgarh Energy Pvt. Ltd. and Agarwal, and had granted him bail after he appeared before the court and sought the relief.

The judge on Tuesday noted that the phone call by the accused to a witness telling him that people from AES USA wish to talk to him was interference with the due course of administration.

"Out of a large number of cases, where the witnesses are threatened or won over, only a small number of such instances come to the notice of the court. A large number of prosecutions fail due to hostile witnesses," the judge said.

He said that only the tip of the iceberg comes to the notice of courts as only in very few cases, the witnesses inform the court about the attempts by the accused to approach them.

"In such cases, no leniency is possible as it strikes at the roots of the criminal justice delivery system," the judge said.

He said that not only the hardship which the accused will undergo by losing his liberty is to be considered while decisions the applications to cancel the bail, but the hardship which the society as a whole will undergo if such instances are ignored or are let off merely by giving warning or imposing fine is also to be taken into consideration by the court.

The court made the observations while deciding on an application moved by Advocate Tarannum Cheema for the CBI.

In its order passed on Tuesday, the court noted that the accused admitted to having called up a witness when he landed at Delhi Airport from Kolkata for appearing as a witness in this case.

However the accused was defended by his lawyers and it cannot be submitted by him that he never realised that his contacting the witness may intimidate the witness, the court noted.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)