CBI court defreezes bank account of Bardhan's husband

PUNE: The special court (CBI) here has ordered de-freezing of the bank account of the husband of key accused in the alleged question paper leak and illegal appointments scam that rocked the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) earlier this year.
Manoj Bardhan, husband of Chhabi Bardhan, former personal secretary to IITM director, had moved an application seeking the court's directions to de-freeze his pension account at a bank in Ashoknagar here and also release of the fixed deposit receipts (FDRs), which were seized by the CBI officials during a search operation in their house on July 19 as part of the investigations against Chhabi for the alleged scam.
In an order passed recently, the special judge (CBI) D M Deshmukh partly allowed Manoj's plea by ordering that his pension account in the bank be de-freezed. The court, however, did not allow his plea for release of the FDRs while observing that the same can not be done in view of the ongoing investigations.
Bardhan and two others were booked by the CBI on July 8 on charges of conspiracy, misuse of official position and securing illegal gratification to effect appointments of undeserving candidates and for leaking question papers and answers of the recruitment exam for the post of assistant manager at IITM in March.
After unsuccessfully attempting to secure anticipatory bail from the CBI court and later the Bombay high court, Bardhan surrendered before the CBI authorities on August 13. The court had ordered her remand into CBI custody for a week and granted her a conditional bail on August 21.
Manoj, who retired in February 2010 as works manager from Ammunition Factory, Kirkee (AFK), contended in his plea that he had no link with the offence registered against his wife and his bank account freezed by the CBI authorities was exclusively a pension account.
However, the prosecution had argued that Manoj had not cooperated with the investigators and that the CBI had sought details of his retirement benefits and other payments from the AFK and the same were not received by the CBI yet. As such, it would not be proper to return the FDRs and de-freeze the account.
The court observed that there was no dispute in terms of the bank account which is a pension account and considering the source of livelihood of the applicant and his family, it must be de-freezed.