New Delhi: A court here has granted bail to former CBI Sub-Inspector Abhishek Tiwari, who was arrested in connection with a case of alleged leaking of confidential documents to divert the probe against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in a corruption case.
Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal of Rouse Avenue Court, while granting bail, noted that Tiwari is a former CBI official and has roots in the society.
The court, in its order dated February 11, observed that the allegations of the present case do not pertain to economic offenses of huge magnitude, therefore, it cannot per se be said to be falling under the category of grave offenses.
It also pointed out that other accused persons having almost similar roles have already been released on bail recently.
It was also directed that Tiwari furnish a personal bond of Rs. 1,00,000 with one surety of the like amount.
On January 31, the same court had granted bail to Deshmukh’s lawyer Anand Daga and his social media manager Vaibhav Gajendra Tumane in the case.
Opposing the bail plea, the CBI argued that Tumane was the one who collected the sensitive report from Daga, prepared its copies, and sent them through courier to various addresses in Delhi.
As per the FIR, Investigating Officer Tiwari, who was assisting the Enquiry Officer in the preparation of the probe report, was in possession of sensitive documents.
He allegedly shared copies of different documents like memorandum of proceedings, sealing-unsealing memorandum, statements, seizure memos etc, related to the investigation of the case with Daga through WhatsApp on many occasions.
The CBI said that the investigation has revealed that Tiwari and Daga met in Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune in person, and had been in regular touch through WhatsApp calls and messages and SMS after April 14 last year.
The probe has revealed that Daga had bought an iPhone worth Rs. 95,000 for the CBI official and gave it to him as illegal gratification in lieu of sharing case sensitive and confidential documents.
The CBI had arrested Daga from Mumbai and Tiwari from Delhi. Later, Daga was shifted to a Delhi jail on transit remand.
