CBI asked to counter claims of accused in PNB scam

Mumbai: The Bombay high court HC) has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file an affidavit in reply to the allegations leveled by Vipul Ambani, an accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud. Mr Ambani has claimed that the CBI fudged the register to show that he was not detained illegally for more than 24 hours before being arrested on February 20.

A bench of Justice A.S. Gadkari, while hearing Mr Ambani’s bail plea through senior counsel Amit Desai, was informed that the CBI was trying to cover up its gaffe of detaining Mr Ambani beyond 24 hours and not producing him before the magistrate.

Advocate Desai said that while entry and exit times had been noted in the CBI visitor register for February 18, in Mr Ambani’s case, the time of his entry had been noted for February 19.

Advocate Desai further said that while both Mr Ambani and CBI agreed that the former visited the bureau office on February 18 and then again on February 19, a perusal of the register showed that he had visited only on February 19. Advocate Desai said that this indicated that the register was manipulated and that the February 18 entry was changed to February 19 to show that Mr Ambani was allowed to go on that day and arrested the next day i.e. February 20. However, there was no entry to that effect in the register.

After hearing the submissions, the bench directed the CBI to file an affidavit in reply to the allegations and posted the matter for hearing after a week. Ambani had moved a bail application in HC, after his application was rejected by the lower court.