A bench headed by Justice H L Dattu turned down the plea of CBI which had approached the apex court for cancellation of bail after Chandra was allegedly caught on tape trying to influence A K Singh, the then public prosecutor in the case.
The apex court said it is ‘not appropriate at this stage’ to recall its order of November 23, 2011 by which the business tycoon was granted bail in the multi-crore scam.
CBI had alleged that Chandra had misused the relief given to him by approaching Singh and trying to ‘materially interfere’ with the prosecution in an ‘attempt to influence’ the conduct and outcome of the trial.
It has alleged that conduct of Chandra was questionable during the period of bail as he was found holding discussion with the prosecutor about crucial witnesses.
His conversation with the prosecutor, who was removed from the case, reflected that the entire strategy of CBI in dealing with the case was compromised, the agency has said.
CBI said it had registered a Preliminary Enquiry report which named Chandra and prosecutor Singh.
The investigation also suggested that the conversation took place between the two when the statement of crucial witness A K Srivastava, Department of Telecom's former Deputy Director General was being recorded in the court, it had said.
The agency had also stated that the CFSL report has also confirmed that the recorded conversation was neither tampered with nor any editing was done and it was the voice of Chandra and Singh.
Image: Sanjay Chandra