New Delhi, Aug 29 A Delhi court on Saturday sent former Delhi Jal Board (DJB) CEO Udit Prakash Rai and a private person, Nagendra Yadav, to two days of police custody in a corruption case, saying their custodial interrogation was necessary to unearth other aspects of the conspiracy, including the involvement of other people.
Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh allowed the Anti-Corruption Bureau's (ACB) plea seeking the custody of both accused.
"Keeping in view the facts and circumstances, so far as the two days' police custody application of accused Udit Prakash Rai and Nagendra Yadav are concerned, this court is of the considered opinion that their two days' police custody is justified and necessary in the facts and circumstances of this case," the judge said.
"The first 15 days of arrest of these accused are not yet over; therefore, there is no legal embargo on sending them to police custody from judicial custody... their custodial interrogation is also necessary to unearth other aspects of the conspiracy, including other persons involved," he added.
The court noted allegations that on January 19, 2023, Yadav transferred Rs 61 lakh directly through banking channels into Rai's personal bank account, when he was the CEO of DJB, and that another Rs 91 lakh was transferred by Yadav to the account of Rai's mother-in-law.
"Allegedly, these funds were utilised for the purchase of immovable properties," the court noted.
It said though Rai claimed he repaid the initial amount of Rs 61 lakh with interest within four months and that a substantial part of the second amount of Rs 91 lakh was also repaid, the aspect required investigation due to a discrepancy in the loan agreement regarding the first transaction.
"The apprehension of the investigating agency that this loan agreement may have been subsequently created to give the transaction a colour of genuineness cannot be brushed aside at this stage. The original of this document is to be recovered," the court said.
The court said the police file also revealed that Rai approved various corrigendums, while the contents of many of the corrigendums were actually received from other co-accused through WhatsApp before their issuance.
"Confrontation of both these accused with each other and with material on record prima facie seems justified for fair investigation of this case," the court said.
The court said Yadav's involvement in certain suspected hawala transactions also needed to be probed.
"Several crores of rupees were received by Yadav on his phone, that too through different entities... the transfer of money needs to be ascertained."
"Merely because a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) complaint has already been filed and the route of the proceeds of crime has been investigated by the Directorate of Enforcement (DoE) under PMLA, it can't mean that a predicate offence need not be investigated further," the court said.
It said the complete track of the amount obtained through corruption, cheating, or breach of trust needed to be investigated.
"It is well settled that the predicate offence and the PMLA offence are completely independent and unconnected, except that the proceeds of crime are generated through the commission of the crime in the predicate offence. Merely because the accused persons were not arrested by DoE, the requirement of their police custody in this predicate offence cannot be thwarted," the court said.
It remanded the accused to police custody till August 31.
On August 19, the court had sent former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain and four others to judicial custody until September 3 in the case. The same day, Ankit Srivastava, a former contractual consultant with the DJB, was sent to a two-day police custody.
Srivastava was later remanded to judicial custody.
The other accused in the case are private persons Raja Kumar Kurra and Pankaj Verma.
The matter pertains to a tender awarded to Euroteck Environmental Private Limited when Jain was Delhi's water minister.
The case was registered in May 2024 on a complaint from the Directorate of Vigilance over alleged large-scale irregularities, manipulation of tender conditions and criminal conspiracy in the tendering process related to augmentation and upgrading of the DJB's sewage treatment plants.
