NEW DELHI: Bail orders of all five accused in the Biocon Briberygate case have been deferred till Tuesday afternoon. The Special CBI court of Nirja Bhatia at Rouse Avenue in New Delhi postponed the decision citing the voluminous nature of the records.
The court will also give the orders on the application seeking voice samples of the accused persons on Tuesday.
The order on the bail petition of four accused – 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 was to be pronounced by the court of Nirja Bhatia, Special Judge CBI on Monday afternoon.
However, the fifth accused and director of Synergy Network India Private Limited Dinesh Dua’s bail order was to be pronounced on Tuesday.
On Monday, at around 4 pm, the council from both sides reached the court. The lawyers from the defence council were waiting for the order to be pronounced. However, the court said that the order and records are voluminous, therefore the court will pronounce the judgement on Tuesday.
The hearing of the arguments from both sides was done on Friday after which the court reserved the order for Monday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the case, 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.
Biocon Biologics, headed by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, was caught in controversy last month after CBI officers caught Dua allegedly giving a bribe to Reddy on behalf of the drug manufacturer to waive Phase-III clinical trial of Insulin Aspart injection. The company, however, has dismissed the allegations.
According to CBI sources, on May 18, the word ‘data’ used in the trial application was allegedly replaced by ‘protocol’, which could have benefited the company in getting the approval of the Insulin Aspart injection. Based on that, a case was registered and Reddy was arrested, the sources added.
One of the sources further said that the case was triggered after the interception of several conversations between the accused. “Based on communications and interceptions of the calls of the accused, it was found that they were indulging in wrongdoings and that was the reason the CBI demanded their voice sample,” he said.