Uliburu mining scam accused gets three-month interim bail
Cuttack: The Orissa high court on Monday refused to grant regular bail to Deepak Gupta, a key accused in the alleged Rs 1,500-crore Uliburu mining scam involving iron ore mines in the Keonjhar region.
However, the high court granted Gupta interim bail for three months on the condition that he shall furnish cash security of Rs 1 crore and bail bond of Rs 2 crore.
This is the sixth time the high court rejected his bail application. His bail was rejected last on August 7, 2019. Gupta has been in jail custody since September 5, 2013.
While rejecting his bail application Justice S K Sahoo said, “In the absence of any substantial change in circumstances after the rejection of the last bail application on merit and particularly since there is strong prima facie case against the petitioner relating to his involvement in the commission of grave economic offence, I am not inclined to reconsider his prayer for bail on merit and release him on bail pending disposal of trial”.
Gupta is facing charges of dishonestly and fraudulently misappropriating Rs 1,523.59 crore from 2004 to 2009 through illegal mining of iron ore in Uliburu reserve forest by entering into criminal conspiracy with the public servants of mining, forest department and revenue departments and obtaining pecuniary advantage to himself and causing equivalent loss to the government exchequer.
Justice Sahoo felt Gupta was entitled to interim bail in view of the period of detention of the petitioner for seven years in judicial custody and the snail’s pace at which the trial of the case has proceeded so far even after three years of framing of charge. The prosecution is likely to examine 147 witnesses and only 25 witnesses have been examined so far.
He observed that the petitioner is no way responsible for the delayed trial and the fact that no effective steps have been taken either by the prosecution or by the trial court to expedite the trial in spite of repeated directions of this court in the earlier bail applications.
He said as the orders of this court in that respect have been flouted and normal functioning of the trial court has not been restored on account of situation arising out of Covid-19 pandemic as per the status report submitted by the trial court and further taking into account the conduct of the petitioner in not flouting the terms and conditions of the interim bail order, I am of the humble view that the petitioner is entitled for grant of interim bail, Justice Sahoo observed.
The interim bail period of the petitioner shall commence from October 1, 2020 and he shall surrender before the trial court on January 2, 2020, the HC order said. Earlier, the high court granted Gupta interim bail for one month on June 26, 2020 and after availing the interim bail period, he had surrendered before the trial court.