Court summons Syndicate Bank ex-CMD, 5 others in graft case

Syndicate Bank’s sacked CMD Sudhir Kumar Jain, Bhushan Steel Ltd (BSL) vice-chairman and managing director Neeraj Singal and four others, chargesheeted by CBI in an alleged bribery case, have been summoned by a special court to appear before it as accused on November 2.

Special CBI Judge Gurdeep Singh took cognisance of the CBI charge sheet filed against them for the alleged offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and under various provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. “After going through statements and the documents, I am satisfied that there is sufficient incriminating material on record to proceed against accused persons,” the judge said.

“I, accordingly, take cognizance of the offence under section 120 B of IPC read with section 7, 12, 13(2) read with section 13(1)(d) of the PC Act against Sudhir Kumar Jain, a government servant (terminated), Vineet Godha, Puneet Godha, Vijay Pahuja, Neeraj Singhal and Pankaj Tiwari,” the judge said. In its charge sheet, CBI has said that service of Jain was terminated by government and thus no sanction for his prosecution was required.

The court had in September last year granted bail to all the accused, including Jain and Singhal, after CBI had failed to file the charge sheet against them within the stipulated period of 60 days.