Biocon Briberygate: CBI Court Rejects Bail Pleas; Allows Collection Of Voice Samples

| Updated: 19 July, 2022 6:39 pm IST

Rouse Avenue Court (TNI Pix By Amit Rawat)

NEW DELHI: The bail applications of all five accused in the Biocon graft case were rejected by the Special CBI Court on Tuesday. Court also allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to collect voice samples of the accused with subjects to safeguard.

The CBI court of Nirja Bhatia, Special Judge, while giving the order said there were multiple applications from the defence sides. “The court allows the CBI to collect the voice samples subject to safeguarding and bails of all the accused are rejected,” Special Judge Nirja Bhatia said.

The defence counsel will be able to get a copy of the bail orders by tomorrow (Wednesday). The court on Monday had deferred the order citing the voluminous nature of the records.

Joint Drugs Controller S Eswara Reddy, Associate Vice President and Head National Regulatory Affairs (NRA) of Biocon Biologics Limited L Praveen Kumar, director of Bioinnovat Research Private Limited Guljit Sethi and Assistant Drug Inspector at Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) Animesh Kumar and director of Synergy Network India Private Limited Dinesh Dua were arrested by CBI last month.

They were found to be involved in a case of corruption where Biocon Biologics was allegedly found to be involved in waiving off the third phase of the clinical trial of “Insulin Aspart” injection in India. According to the CBI, the deal was fixed at about Rs 9 lakh, however, the accused were caught red-handed with Rs 4 lakh cash.

The CBI, in an application before the vacation bench on June 21, had sought to record voice samples of all five accused. The court will also pronounce its order on the agency’s application on Tuesday.

In its argument, the CBI told the court that it had intercepted communications and mobile calls between the accused, which now needs to be confirmed through voice sampling.

Meanwhile, Biocon Biologics, in their statement said, “Whilst we are disappointed that bail was not granted to our employee, L Praveen Kumar, we have complete faith in the Indian judicial system. We will continue to extend our full cooperation to the investigative agencies and take appropriate steps as per law.”