By IANS,
New Delhi: A city court Monday dismissed the bail plea of Medical Council of India (MCI) president Ketan Desai who has been accused of accepting a bribe of Rs.2 crore for granting recognition to a private medical college in Punjab.
“Considering the nature of the offence and the fact that the probe is still at an initial stage, both bail applications are dismissed,” Additional Sessions Judge O.P. Saini said while denying bail to Desai and J.P. Singh, an alleged middleman in the case.
The court accepted the plea of the CBI prosecutor that the accused are influential and capable of influencing witnesses who came forward to inform the probe agency about them.
“No witness would come forward if the accused are granted bail at this stage,” he said.
“I cannot disclose names of witnesses as they are facing threat from different quarters. Some evidence suggests that hawala transactions have also been conducted,” the prosecutor added.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, counsel for Desai, said there was no point in keeping the accused in jail as the investigation was over.
“The alleged bribe of Rs.2 crore was not recovered from Desai. Moreover, he was not the sole authority to grant recognition to the medical college in question,” he argued.