Nearly two weeks after IT sleuths seized unaccounted money to the tune of Rs 4.7 crore from Karnataka government official SC Jayachandra, a special CBI court in Bengaluru granted him conditional bail on Thursday.
Wednesday witnessed a scene of high drama at the Karnataka High Court when SC Jayachandra was granted conditional bail, media reports suggested.
The CBI court granted him conditional bail even as the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) appealed to the court for Jayachandra’s custody.
According to reports, the court cautioned Jayachandra against destroying evidence pertaining to the case and asked him to surrender his passport.
With the bail period ending on December 22, he has been asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) every alternate day.
Jayachandra, who was the Chief Planning Officer of the State Highway Development Project and was later suspended over the raid, has been in the custody of the ED since last Monday. He was arrested under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Jayachandra had earlier claimed that the money did not belong to him.
During the interrogation, he reportedly revealed the names of two ministers who are allegedly involved in the scam.
Jayachandra and Chikkarayappa, Managing Director of Cauvery Neeravari Nigama, from whose house IT officials seized unaccounted money, were suspended from government service a day after the raids.
The CBI had filed an FIR against Chikkrayappa in the money laundering case where Rs 5.7 crore of new currency was found from a house rented by SC Jayachandra’s son.
The court also denied the CBI’s request for a stay in the matter, the reports said.