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The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted bail to former Delhi Jal Board (DJB) chief engineer Jagdish Kumar Arora and contractor Anil Kumar Agarwal. Both were arrested last year in an alleged money laundering case involving DJB.
Both individuals, however, were asked to furnish a bail bond worth Rs. 50,000. As per the High Court, the order will be uploaded by today evening or tomorrow. Last year, on October 24, 2024 the Rouse Avenue court had dismissed the bail pleas for both. Arora and Agarwal were charge sheeted [along with others accused by the Enforcement Directorate (ED)] in a money laundering case linked to the procurement of electromagnetic metres for Delhi Jal Board. Advocates Vijay Agarwal and Nagesh Behl, representing Anil Kumar Agarwal, submitted that the latter was falsely implicated in the "present" case. Moreover, earlier before trial court, the counsel had submitted that Agarwal was neither named in CBI's case registered against NKG Infrastructure Ltd. & Ors. It was further submitted that the "applicant/accused is an aged person suffering from various health ailments and is behind bars for over eight months"; that "only incriminating material collected against the accused is unreliable". It was argued that the ED presented twisted facts, since the "DJB did not offer an inflated contract (worth Rs. 38 crores) as alleged in the complaint filed by the ED". Enforcement Directorate's Special Counsel, Zoheb Hossain and Special Public Prosecutor, Manish Jain opposed the pleas. The ED argued that Agarwal "submitted fake performance certificates, dated January 2, 2018 and March 12, 2018, in favour of NKG Infrastructure Ltd." which led to Jal board offering contract to the company. As per ED, the accused/applicant had received cash from sham transactions booked with a number of identities namely, M/S Modern Enterprises, M/S Shiva Trading Company, M/S Xpert Solutions and M/S Integrated Hydraulic System during the same time when funds from Delhi Jal Board were received". It was submitted that the said cash apart from money through banking channels, was used by the accused/applicant to bribe the accused Jagdish Kumar Arora through accused Tajinder Pal Singh, totaling to Rs. 3.19 crores. According to the ED, "there is plethora of evidence against accused including co-accused Tajinder Pal Singh's statement under Sec. 50 of PMLA, 2002". (ANI)
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