NEW DELHI: A local court on Friday reserved its order on the bail application of four accused in the Rs 4 lakh bribery scandal involving pharma major Biocon Biologics and Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).
The special CBI court will pronounced its judgment on Monday the bail pleas of Joint Drugs Controller S Eswara Reddy, Dinesh Dua, L Praveen Kumar and Guljit Sethi.
The agency filed an application to record the voice samples of all the five accused before the vacation bench on June 21.
CBI said that the case was triggered after the interception of several conversations between the accused.
The investigation is at an initial stage, CBI added. The agency had intercepted communications and mobile calls between the accused and that’s why they demanded voice sampling.
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The bail application of another accused, Animesh Kumar, assistant drug inspector (ADI) in CDSCO’s New Delhi office, will be heard on Saturday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has asked for the voice sampling of all the five arrested accused, sources told The New Indian.
Commenting on The New Indian’s report, Seema Ahuja, Global Head of Communications and Corporate Brand for Biocon Biologics & Biocon Group, tweeted, “It’s incorrect to label it as #Biocon Briberygate, with no mention of #CDSCO whose two officials were arrested in this case, intermediary agency whose official was caught with CDSCO official. Why target the Company? Biocon has denied bribery allegations.Lets wait for judgement (sic).”
Biocon Biologics, headed by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, was caught in controversy last month after CBI officers caught a person red handed giving bribery of Rs 4 lakh to Reddy on behalf of the drug manufacturer to waive phase-three clinical trial of Insulin Aspart injection.
The company, however, has dismissed the allegations.
ALSO READ: Amid Biocon’s Bribery Scandal, Medicos Wary Of Its Insulin Shot
In an FIR, the CBI named Reddy and Dua who is director of Synergy Network India Private Limited, Guljit Sethi aka Guljit Chaudhary, director of Delhi-based Bioinnovat Research Services Private Limited, L Praveen Kumar, associate vice-president and head-National Regulatory Affairs (NRA) of Bengaluru-based Biocon Biologics Limited, and Animesh Kumar and other officials of CDSCO.
According to the CBI, Dua agreed to pay a bribe amount of Rs 9 lakh to Reddy for favourably processing three files of Biocon and also for recommending “Insulin Aspart Injection” to the Subject Expert Committee (SEC).