Lalit Bhanot, Jayachandran get bail in CWG graft case

Two former office bearers of Commonwealth Games (CWG) organising committee, Lalit Bhanot and M Jayachandran, arrested for their alleged roles in a games-related corruption case, were granted bail on Saturday by a Delhi court.

Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh allowed the bail pleas of CWG OC former secretary general Bhanot and former treasurer Jayachandran on grounds of parity.

The two had sought bail, claiming parity of their cases with that of CWG OC sacked chairperson Suresh Kalmadi, given bail by the Delhi High Court early this week.

While Bhanot was asked to furnish a personal bond of Rs5 lakh with two sureties of the same amount for his release on bail, co-accused Jayachandran was told to furnish a personal bond Rs2 lakh with two sureties of like amount.

The accused had moved the court for bail the day Kalmadi and OC former director general VK Verma were granted bail by the high court.

Earlier, the trial court had on January 4 dismissed the bail pleas of Bhanot, Jayachandran, joint director general (sports) ASV Prasad, OC's former director general (procurement) Surjit Lal and Hyderabad-based AKR Construction's promoter AK Reddy.

The CBI had filed its first charge sheet against Kalmadi and 10 others on May 20, 2011 in the graft case.

Kalmadi and ten others have been accused of allegedly awarding a contract to a Swiss firm to install a Timing-Scoring-Result (TSR) system for the Games at an exorbitant rate, causing a loss of over Rs90 crore to the state exchequer.