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As CBI demand to cancel bail rejected, court warns Tejashwi to be responsible
IRCTC case: Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav rebuffed CBI's accusations.
Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday attended a court hearing in Delhi as the CBI sought the cancellation of the bail granted to the RJD leader. Amid the probe over a case linked to the alleged IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) scam, the officials of the probe agency had accused Tejashwi Yadav of trying to influence the investigation. Yadav was accused of threatening CBI officials while addressing a press conference. The Delhi court, however, refused to cancel the bail.
Special judge Geetanjali Goel asked him to be careful and choose appropriate words. A detailed order shall follow. The hearing took place in Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court.
"We are not cancelling the bail. Will pass detailed order today and warn Tejashwi to choose better behavior, " the court said.
Advocate Maninder Singh - appearing for Yadav - denied the submission made by the CBI counsel. "My client's press conference was in another context. He talked about many things, scams and other political issues in the press conference, " Singh said.
"I have spoken about Land for Job scam, I have spoke about the raids in that case, then how are they seeking the cancellation of bail in the IRCTC case?" the lawyer further argued on his behalf. If the CBI officials feel threatened, he added, then they can register an FIR (first information report) under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Yadav is one of the accused in the IRCTC case.
His counsel further argued that he “is in the opposition party and raising questions on the wrongdoing is his duty”. "The same thing against CBI and ED was also asked by the Present Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was a CM and was in opposition in 2013," the counsel contended.
Advocate DP Singh - appearing for the CBI - submitted that one of the case related CBI officer recently met with the accident by a truck. "We are not correlating this incidents with the threat as we have no evidence. But officers are afraid now after the Tejashwi Yadav presser, which was according to the CBI was a clear threat to its officers. So we requested court to cancel his bail on this ground," he said.
The court cautioned the RJD leader to be responsible while speaking in public.
