Suspended Excise Commissioner to be interrogated inside jail

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM, APRIL 25. Mr. G. Anjaneya Reddy, Judge of the Special Court for CBI cases, on Wednesday permitted the CBI to interrogate Mr. Surender Pal Singh, the suspended Commissioner of Central Excise, inside the Central Prison here where the accused was under judicial custody.

The Judge in his order permitted Mr. U.V. Bhaskara Rao, Inspector of the CBI, to interrogate Mr. Singh from April 26 to May 1 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. every day, in a room provided by the Superintendent of the Central Jail. The prison official was also directed by the court to provide a room for interrogation.

Mr. B. Ravindranath, Special Public Prosecutor, sought CBI custody of Mr. Singh as more information was sought from him while counsel for the accused, Mr. K.V. Ramamurthy, pleaded for grant of bail as Mr. Singh was suffering from depressive psychosis and faced threat to his life. He also suggested interrogation in judicial custody instead of custodial interrogation.

The CBI told the court that Mr. Singh had not revealed details of a locker, the key of which was recovered from him. There were also movable and immovable properties to be accounted for. It alleged that Mr. Singh, in collusion with his wife, Kushal Singh, an IAS officer, had transferred a large amount of funds.

The Judge delivered the order on CBI's application on Wednesday and an order on the bail petition was expected on Thursday.

It may be recalled that the Central Excise official was arrested by the CBI in the early hours of April 19 near Yelamanchili, 100 km from here. The CBI court remanded him till May 2.

On March 9, two of his associates were arrested in Hyderabad after they had allegedly collected a bribe of Rs. 15 lakhs on behalf of Mr. Singh from an industrial house. The official and residential premises of Mr. Singh were raided on the same day yielding Rs. 4.5 lakhs in cash. The Central Excise official who was on leave then was suspended but he had gone underground to avoid arrest.

Mr. Singh had moved a petition before the Delhi High Court and it had given him two weeks to apply for an anticipatory bail petition in the court concerned. Mr. Singh's application for grant of anticipatory bail was rejected by the CBI court here on April 6. But he had managed to get an anticipatory bail for 10 days from the Andhra Pradesh High Court on April 9.

As the bail period expired on the midnight of April 18, the CBI officials, keeping track of Mr. Singh, arrested him near Yelamanchili.

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