Bail granted for 8 accused in LIC housing loan scam

MUMBAI - A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court has granted bail to eight people arrested for the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) housing loan scam.

Earlier, CBI had busted a housing finance racket and arrested eight persons under a bribery case on November 24.

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) Finance CEO Ramchandran Nair, LIC secretary (investment) Naresh Chopra, Bank of India general manager R.N. Tayal, Bank of India director Maninder Singh Johar, Punjab National Bank deputy general manager Venkoba Gujjal, Money Matters chairman and managing director Rajesh Sharma and his two employees Suresh Gattani and Sanjay Sharma were arrested by CBI.

CBI is seeking re-arrest of three of the eight accused.

Maninder Singh Johar’s advocate Anjani Singh said all eight have been granted bail on a surety of Rs two lakh for each.

Singh further said any re-arrest would be possible when CBI serves an application for it.

“At the moment all the eight are under judicial custody, if CBI wants to re-arrest three, they have to serve application for that. Only then CBI can take them under custody or ask them for remand,” Singh said on Friday.

“As of now the status is, all eight have gone through the judicial custody. They have been sent to Arthur Road jail only for a night, that’s it for these cases,” he added.

The CBI alleged that the eight finance executives sanctioned large loans for corporations in return for bribes.

Search operations were conducted at various locations in Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Jaipur, Kolkata and Jalandhar during which incriminating documents were seized. By Ankita Dwivedi (ANI)