Court denies bail for transfer scam accused

A special Central Bureau of Investigation court on Wednesday denied bail to Anuraj Vardhan, Indian Revenue Service officer, R Perumalswamy, private secretary to former minister of state for finance Gingee Ramachandran, and A Krishnamurthy, a chartered accountant and alleged conduit between the IRS officer and the private secretary.

Judge Prem Kumar heard the arguments of advocates of all the three accused persons, who are in the judicial custody and lodged in Tihar jail.

Rejecting the plea of Siddarth Luthra, counsel for Vardhan, that his client should be given bail on humanitarian grounds as his son and daughter are suffering from autism, the judge said the conduct of the accused does not show he has 'serious concern' for his children.

"There is hardly any proper treatment given by the accused to his children since his posting from Mumbai to Delhi, which was got done on the pretext of treatment of his children on the representation that best treatment is available in Delhi only," he said.

"The court cannot show motherly leniency towards these people accused of high corruption. Offences of corruption have to be taken more seriously than a heinous crime committed by an individual against an individual. The accused, if released on bail at this stage of investigation, may cover his tracks and hamper the investigation," he said.

The judge also rejected the bail plea of Perumalswamy, who requested the court to compassionately consider the advanced stage of his wife's pregnancy and the fact that he was the only breadwinner of the family.

"The aforesaid facts by themselves do not make out any case for the release of the accused on bail on humanitarian grounds," the judge said.

He also rejected the bail plea of Krishnamurthy on the grounds he has a 90-year-old mother and an infant baby of six months.

S Padmanabhan, fourth accused, was granted bail by the judge on June 9.