Shares of Bhushan Steel tanked 20 per cent to hit the lower circuit limit at ₹304.60 on the BSE on Wednesday. The shares tumbled after a sessions court denied anticipatory bail to the company’s Vice-Chairman Neeraj Singhal in connection with the Syndicate Bank bribery case.

Bhushan Steel is one of the prime accused in the bribery case which led to the suspension of Sudhir Kumar Jain, Chairman and Managing Director of Syndicate Bank.

Meanwhile, news agencies reported that CBI Director Ranjit Sinha has ordered an internal inquiry after his team did not arrest Neeraj Singhal following a raid at his house where he was present. Singhal has not been arrested till now and is evading arrest. Bhushan Steel did not respond to queries from BusinessLine .

CBI opposes move

News agencies reported that during the arguments in front of Special Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma, Singhal’s counsel told the court that his client should be granted relief as he was ready to cooperate in the investigation. The counsel also argued that the allegations levelled against Singhal were incorrect.

However, CBI reportedly told the court that Singhal was involved in the entire controversy. The investigative agency also submitted some of the documents seized from Bhushan Steel and Syndicate Bank during its raids.

CBI has alleged that Bhushan Steel had paid a bribe of ₹50 lakh to Jain to prevent the bank from declaring a ₹150-crore loan to Bhushan Steel as a non-performing asset.

BusinessLine reported that the CBI had recovered the bribe amount of ₹50 lakh from Sudhir Kumar Jain. Other accused in the case include Ved Prakash Agarwal, Chairman and Managing Director of Prakash Industries, Vipul Agarwal, Pawan Bansal, Vineet Godha, Punit Godha, Vijay Pahuja, Pursotam Lal Totlani and Pankaj Bansal.

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