December 18, 2018:

On Tuesday, Delhi court granted bail to alleged middleman Manoj Prasad, arrested in connection with bribery allegations involving CBI special director Rakesh Asthana who has been sent on indefinite leave by the Govt.

The Defence Counsel Vikas Pahwa argued that the CBI could not file the chargesheet against Prasad in the stipulated time of 60 days.

Granting bail to Prasad, Special CBI judge Santosh Snehi Mann said that no purpose will be served by keeping him in further custody.

Arrested on Oct 17, Prasad is currently in judicial custody. On Nov 13, the Delhi High Court had denied him bail in light of the serious allegations against him.

On Oct 31, co-accused and CBI DSP Devender Kumkar was granted bail after the agency did not oppose his bail petition.

The agency had registered an FIR against Asthana and others on a written complaint of businessman Sathish Sana on Oct 15.

Besides Asthana, Prasad and Kumar, another alleged middleman Somesh Prasad has also been named as an accused in the case.

The FIR had alleged that Kumar, then Investigating Officer (IO) in the case against meat exporter Moin Qureshi, repeatedly called the complainant to the CBI office to harass and compel him to pay a bribe of ₹5 crore for getting a clean chit in the case.

The complaint had also alleged that a part of the bribe was paid by Sana.

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