Petro Gate: Judicial custody of five accused extended

A Delhi court on Monday extended till July 4 the judicial custody of five accused, arrested in connection with the Petroleum Ministry documents leak case. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Sanjay Khanagwal extended the custody of the accused who were produced before the court on expiry of their 14-day judicial remand. 

“IO (investigating officer) is directed to supply the deficient documents to all the accused in compliance of section 207 of CrPC. Judicial remand of five accused extended till July 4. Put up for further hearing on July 4,” the CMM said.  The five accused whose custody was extended are <g data-gr-id="29">Asharam</g>, Ishwar Singh (multi-tasking staff of Petroleum Ministry), <g data-gr-id="30">Asharam’s</g> sons Lalta Prasad, Rakesh Kumar (both former staff of the Ministry) and Rajkumar Chaubey (a driver).  Eight other accused including five corporate executives – Shailesh Saxena of Reliance Industries Ltd, Vinay Kumar of Essar, Rishi Anand of Reliance ADAG, Cairns India’s K K Nayak and <g data-gr-id="31">Jubiliant</g> Energy’s Subhash Chandra – have already been enlarged on bail. 

During the hearing, counsels for corporate executives moved applications seeking deficient documents from the IO. 

They argued that documents filed before the court have been not been provided to the accused and neither have the documents relied upon by the police in the charge-sheet been given to them.