SC denies bail to CWG scam-accused Lalit Bhanot
23 Sep 2011
The Supreme Court today refused to entertain the bail plea of former secretary-general of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) organising committee, Lalit Bhanot, arrested for his role in awarding a contract relating to the October 2010 games at inflated rates.
A bench of Justices J M Panchal and H L Gokhale told Bhanot he could approach the "appropriate court" for bail, adding that the court concerned would not be influenced by observations made by the Delhi high court, which had earlier rejected his bail plea. The court allowed Bhanot to withdraw his petition.
Bhanot was arrested on 23 February this year along with former director-general of CWG organising committee V K Verma for allegedly awarding the contract for installing timing, scoring and result systems for the games to Swiss Timing Omega, causing a loss of over Rs90 crore to the exchequer.
The Delhi high court had, on 5 July, refused bail to Bhanot.
A close aide of games committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi, Bhanot was arrested along with Verma for entering into the Rs107-crore deal with Swiss Timing.
Earlier, special Central Bureau of Investigation judge Talwant Singh had also dismissed Bhanot's bail plea.
In the first chargesheet filed in relation to the TSR contract on 20 May - one of the several scams associated with the games - the CBI had named Kalmadi, Bhanot, Verma and eight others.
All the accused have been indicted for various offences, including criminal conspiracy under Section 120(B), cheating (section 420), and forgery (section 468 & 471) of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
.webp)
