PSS, 3 others remanded to judicial custody till Aug 7

Mumbai, Aug 3: Former Unit Trust of India (UTI) chairman PS Subramanyam, the mutual fund’s suspended executive directors and stock broker Rakesh Mehta were on Friday remanded to judicial custody till August 7 by a special court which rejected their bail plea.

Former UTI chief PS Subramanyam leaves the CBI office after an enquiry in connection with the UTI scam on Friday in Mumbai

CBI prosecutor Gopal Sharan pleaded that the agency had come across vital documents and needed Subramanyam’s custody to confront him with these papers. Besides, he said, CBI had to collect details of conversations Subramanyam had with some persons on his mobile phone on August 2.

CBI opposed their bail plea on the ground that the accused had close nexus with co-accused Arvind Johari, who is the main beneficiary in UTI scam. Johari is now in CBI custody.

CBI said their links with Johari vis-a-vis other public financial institutions and even Jardines, a foreign company, needed to be probed.

Urging for bail, defence lawyers said the accused were already in custody since the last 14 days and all documents had been seized. Therefore, they should be enlarged.

This is for the first time that the accused have been remanded to judicial custody. They were arrested on July 21 and remanded to police custody. Perusing case diaries, the judge noted ‘investigations have been prompt, progressive and regular’.

-- PTI