Opposing their discharge pleas, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said they are “premature” as the “case continues to be at the stage of investigation”.
The agency also told the court that the extradition of Mallya is awaited.
CBI argued “there is sufficient oral, documentary and circumstantial evidence” against the accused to “establish the offence of criminal conspiracy in commission of the offences”. ET has reviewed the agency’s reply to the discharge applications.
Those who sought relief include Yogesh Shyamkrishna Agarwal, former CMD of IDBI Bank, Bal Krishna Batra, former executive director for corporate banking, OV Bundellu, former deputy managing director and head of credit committee, SKV Srinivasan, former head of mid corporate group, and RS Sridhar, former general manager at the bank.
The accused, in their discharge petition, submitted that there is not “even an iota of evidence” against them and that they have “not violated any of the rules and regulations while sanctioning any of the loan to Kingfisher Airlines Ltd”.They argued that they are not concerned with the business transactions of Kingfisher Airlines and pointed out that the CBI has not alleged that they (accused) have received any illegal gratification or in any manner personally benefited from the transaction of loan to Kingfisher Airlines.The former bank officials have further averred that their acts “were covered by the definition of public servant”. Hence, sanction to prosecute them was mandatory for CBI to obtain, which it did not. “Such a prosecution without sanction is not at all permissible in law,” the accused have submitted in their petition.
They further said they have been given a clean chit in an inhouse enquiry conducted twice by the staff accountability team (once in June 2012 and second in April 2016), which found no fault with their actions of disbursing loans.
CBI in its reply said, “Evidence available on record in the shape of oral, documentary and circumstantial evidence clearly establishes the role/involvement of the accused in the case. A prima facie and probable case is made out against the accused for framing of charges.”
The agency had filed its first charge sheet in the case on January 24, 2017. Thereafter, the first supplementary charge sheet was filed against the accused on June 2, 2017. The second supplementary charge sheet was filed against accused Budhadev Dasgupta, former IDBI bank general manager, on May 5, 2022. Prosecution sanction against accused Dasgupta remains pending in the court to proceed with the stage of trial.
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