NEW DELHI, April 22 � A Delhi court today fixed April 24 for hearing the bail applications of five corporate executives arrested in the Petroleum Ministry documents leak case, reports PTI.
Additional Sessions Judge Raj Kapoor, who was scheduled to hear the arguments today, deferred the hearing after advocates appearing for the accused requested that the matter be fixed for April 24 due to the two-day strike called by the lawyers� body.
The lawyers� body of all the six district courts in Delhi is observing a two-day strike from today against delay in tabling in the Parliament an amended Bill regarding enhancement of the pecuniary jurisdiction of trial courts.
The court is hearing the bail pleas of accused Shailesh Saxena of Reliance Industries Ltd, Vinay Kumar of Essar, Rishi Anand of Reliance ADAG, Subhash Chandra from Jubilant Energy and Cairns India�s K K Nayak.
Meanwhile, the bail petition of co-accused Virender Kumar, a Defence Ministry staff member, would be heard on April 25 as the lawyer appearing for him today told the court that he would not be available on April 24.
The Crime Branch of Delhi Police has chargesheeted 13 arrested accused, including the six whose bail pleas are pending before the sessions court, in the case.
The five corporate executives have moved the bail pleas before the sessions court after their earlier applications were dismissed by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate on March 24.
Earlier, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) had informed the court that eight documents recovered from the accused in the case were classified in nature and none of these was in public domain.
The Crime Branch has chargesheeted the 13 accused in the case for alleged offences under various sections of IPC.
On February 20, police arrested the five accused corporate executives. Besides them, the police had also arrested Prayas Jain, journalist Shantanu Saikia, Ishwar Singh, Asharam and Rajkumar Chaubey who are also in judicial custody. A total of 16 people have been arrested in connection with two separate FIRs lodged by the police.
