S.K. Jain, CMD, Syndicate Bank and seven others who were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigations have been remanded to four days’ CBI custody. The investigating agency now wants to inquire into possible collusion between the arrested persons and Jain as also probe into the telephonic conversation between the bank officials and the agents. CBI had arrested Jain and seven others – chairman-cum-managing director of Prakash Industries Ved Prakash Agarwal and director Vipul Agarwal, chartered accountant Pawan Bansal, Vineet and Puneet Godha (relatives of Jain), Vijay Pahuja and Pankaj Bansal. They were produced before a magistrate who remanded them in CBI custody. Jain was arrested on Saturday for allegedly negotiating with Bushan Steel for an illegal gratification of Rs 50 lakh in return for granting credit extension to that company as it had defaulted on the payment of loan installments. CBI is said to have recovered cash to the tune of Rs 21 lakh from Jain’s residence besides gold worth Rs 1.68 crore and fixed deposits of up to Rs 63 lakh. The racket was busted after CBI monitored the activities of Jain for last six months.
