In a major development in the mega-bribery case involving Principal Secretary of mining department, Ashok Singhvi, 3 of the accused were sent to judicial custody by ACB court whereas police custody remand for the other 5 was extended till September 24th.

The accused were brought to Udaipur by the Anti Corruption Bureau team on Monday morning amidst tight security. They were produced in the ACB court around 12.35 pm. During the course, advocates of the accused submitted their plea to the judge demanding judicial custody for their clients.

The court premise was surrounded by a huge number of people that included family members of the accused. The accused for whom judicial custody was rejected, looked sad and jaded as they came out of the long hearing session. Relatives of few of the accused were also seen waving them from a distance with tears in their eyes.

Advocates made an appeal that their clients should be sent under judicial custody as the ACB team has nothing more to interrogate. Public prosecutors on the other hand demanded an extension of police custody as they still needed to interrogate more than 200 phone call of the accused, explore where they got Rs 2.5 Crores from and whether they had committed similar bribery cases in past.

After considering the arguments, the court decided to send three of the accused, Mohammad Sher Khan, Shyam S Shinghvi and Dhirendra alias Chintu under judicial custody remand and to extend the police custody remand of the remaining accused till September 24, informed Om Prakash Mehta, the public prosecutor, ACB court.

Om Prakash further added that the next hearing for the accused under police custody will be held on September 24 at 11 am.