Arms dealer Suresh Nanda, his son Sanjeev and two others were on Saturday denied bail by a Delhi court, which accepted the Central Bureau of Investigation's plea that they could hamper the on-going probe into the case of manipulating evidence on alleged kickbacks received in defence deals.
Special CBI Judge I K Kochar, who had on Friday reserved the order on the bail applications of the four accused, dismissed the bail applications saying the probe in the case was at a 'nascent stage' and their release on bail may hamper it adversely.
The Nandas and their relatives looked dejected after the court refused to grant them bail. Almost immediately after the court announced its decision, they went into a huddle with their lawyers.
The accused were arrested from a five-star hotel in Mumbai on March 8, where IRS officer Verma, who was allegedly staying under a fictitious name, was holding a meeting with Nandas and their chartered accountant Shah for allegedly fudging an IT probe report on tax evasion.
According to the probe agency, Suresh Nanda, accused of receiving kickbacks in the tune of Rs 400 crore in certain defence deals, connived with his son and chartered accountant to influence Verma, the IRS officer who had once raided Nandas' premises to gather evidence on non-filing of IT returns.
Earlier, opposing the bail plea of the accused, the CBI referred to certain portions of the transcript of a tapped conversation between IRS officer and Shah.
"I am trying to crook the investigations, undertaken by the CBI, against Suresh Nanda and his son Sanjeev," CBI counsel had said, quoting from the transcript of a conversation between Shah and Verma.
The probe agency alleged that the senior Nanda wanted the I-T official not to mention the fact about his alleged involvement in defence deals in the IT probe report.
Quoting from the transcript of a tapped telephonic conversation, the CBI prosecutor alleged that the accused officer had shown the copy of his report to Nandas' CA and assured all help.
Earlier, the CBI, in its reply to the bail plea, had said that 'mere presence of all the accused in a hotel room was ample proof of conspiracy'.
"The investigation is at initial stage. If the accused applicant will be released, there is every chance that they may influence the witnesses and destroy the evidence," the CBI had said.
However, the defence counsel had vehemently opposed the plea saying tape-recorded conversations cannot be the main evidence and at best, it could be used for corroboration.
The accused cannot be denied bail on such grounds, Ramesh Gupta, counsel for Sanjeev Nanda, said.
All the four, arrested on March 8 from a Mumbai hotel in a raid, had earlier been remanded to judicial custody till April 11.
