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Srichand, Gopichand
furnish personal bonds

Accepting personal bonds and bank guarantees of Rs 15 crore each given by British nationals Srichand and Gopichand, Special Central Bureau of Investigation Judge R L Chugh directed the immigration authorities to allow them to go abroad.

The Supreme Court on May 12 had allowed Srichand and Gopichand to go abroad while asking the third brother Prakashchand to stand guarantee for their return to India.

Prakashchand, a Swiss national, Monday moved an application seeking exemption from personal appearance before the court, which was opposed by the CBI.

Pending a final decision on that application, Chugh granted him exemption from personal appearance on May 25, the next date of hearing.

On the issue of separation of trial, Hinduja counsel Amit Desai submitted that this direction was given by the Delhi high court. This could not be acted on now as the apex Court, in an interim order, directed the trial court to proceed without being influenced by the observations made therein, he said.

The court will take up this issue for consideration on May 25.

The court allowed the Hinduja brothers to begin inspection of files with effect from Tuesday after their counsel Amit Desai and Arvind Nigam submitted that certain copies of documents supplied by the CBI were illegible.

The apex court, while admitting the appeal of the three Hindujas brothers against the high court order, had on May 12 allowed Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja to go abroad till August 20, after furnishing personal bonds of Rs 15 crore each in addition to Prakashchand standing guarantee.

However, the Supreme Court made it clear that during their absence proceedings before the trial court would go and their counsel would not be allowed to seek adjournments on the ground of their absence.

The Supreme Court will further hear the matter on August 7.

The apex court had refused to pass any order on counsel Kapil Sibal's plea to allow substitution of Prakashchand with one of the two brothers, if he came back before August 20.

While allowing the two brothers, the court had also warned them that any violation in the bail conditions would make P P Hinduja stand the risk of going behind bars.

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