Bomb suit scam: Director of firm that supplied faulty gear arrested

Bimal Agarwal, of Techno Trade Impex, claims state government is yet to take delivery of the suits.

Bimal Agarwal, one of the directors of Techno Trade Impex, was on Monday arrested for allegedly supplying inferior quality bomb suits to the Maharashtra police. Agarwal has been charged with cheating and forgery in the case.

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He was arrested soon after the sessions court rejected his anticipatory bail application on Monday, marking the end of a bail hearing that had stretched for six months. He will be produced before the court on Tuesday.

Agarwal had on March 15 moved for bail after the police registered a case of cheating against him on March 13.

The state had floated a tender for the suits after the 26/11 attacks. Techno Trade Impex had won the bid, but the government had a year later rejected its suits for not meeting quality standards.

Agarwal, who was then charged for cheating, had contended that he had been falsely implicated. Agrawal had also moved the Bombay high court seeking direction to the state to take the delivery of the suits and send them for tests. This petition is yet to be decided.

During Agarwal’s bail hearing, the sessions court had directed the disputing parties to resolve the issue using a mediator, and had even appointed them one. But the mediator submitted a report to the court on July 19, stating the mediation process between the two parties had failed.

Agarwal’s advocate contended that Agarwal had already provided a bank guarantee of Rs6 crore against the goods, which could be seized if the suits were found to be faulty.

The police demanded an unconditional guarantee of Rs10 crore for the goods, which Agarwal refused. This was why the mediation process had broken down.