Court denies bail to customs official in gold theft case

New Delhi: A special court has denied bail to a superintendent of the Central Excise department at Sonepat in Haryana, arrested in connection with theft of gold from the department’s vaults at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here.

Special Judge Rakesh Pandit denied the relief to Sanjiv Kumar, saying he might hamper the ongoing probe which is at a crucial stage.

Kumar was earlier denied relief from a magisterial court which had said that the stage was not right for bail.

The CBI had alleged that around 125 kg of gold, seized by the customs department over three decades, had been pilfered from the vaults of the department.

In its order, the court noted the submissions of public prosecutor Shampa Tikait that if released on bail, the accused might flee from justice.

She told the court that the gold was replaced with “non- precious metal” and Kumar’s fingerprints were found on them.

The agency had registered cases related to pilferage of 53 kg of gold but during the probe it found that around 125 kg of of the precious metal was allegedly missing.

Kumar was the custodian of the valuable material godown of Customs department at the Delhi airport between 2002 and 2004.

He was posted as superintendent, Central Excise department, Kundali Division, Sonepat.