Vipul Chitalia, a former vice-president of the Mehul Choksi-backed Gitanjali Group and an accused in the multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on Thursday.
Despite claims that Chitalia had left and returned to India, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) detained him in March 2018. He has spent the previous four years behind bars, with the exception of the time he was given a temporary release on bail in 2018 to attend his daughter’s wedding.
Advocates Vijay Aggarwal and Rahul Agarwal argued Chitalia’s prolonged custody period in support of his bail request. They cited the delay in the trial and claimed that the agency had not finished its investigation or set charges in the case.
Hiten Venegavkar, the special prosecutor, challenged the bail request on the basis of the case’s merits by emphasizing Chaitalia’s involvement in the crime’s commission. Venegaonkar asserted that Chitalia was the ‘mastermin’ who, along with Choksi, carried out illegal transactions and who was aware of the fraud from the outset.
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