Invest UP case: Court grants bail to key accused
The court ordered Jain to furnish a bail bond and a personal surety of ₹2 lakh each. According to the prosecution, Nikant Jain allegedly demanded a bribe of ₹5 crore from a company in exchange for approving a solar cell and solar equipment manufacturing unit in Uttar Pradesh through Invest UP.
The bribe was allegedly demanded on behalf of a senior IAS officer, Abhishek Prakash, who was the CEO of Invest UP at the time. Jain was arrested on March 20 after the case came to light and was sent to jail. However, the alleged bribe amount was not recovered from him.
His lawyer argued that he was not a public servant, and therefore, the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act did not apply to him. The lawyer also claimed that the police did not have any concrete evidence against Jain and that he was not found to be involved in the alleged crime.
Since the bribe amount was not recovered from Nikant Jain, the court granted him bail. A chargesheet was filed against Jain on May 19 under sections 308(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections 8 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The chargesheet relies heavily on witness statements and mobile call records. Jain was allegedly playing the role of a facilitator in executing the project in lieu of a kickback. An FIR was lodged at the Gomti Nagar police station against Jain under sections of BNS. The state government took action on the complaint lodged by the company, SAEL Solar P6 Private Limited.
The FIR was lodged on the complaint of Vishwajeet Dutt, an employee of the company—SAEL Solar P6 Private Limited. In the complaint, Dutt pointed out that his company wanted to set up a plant in the state for manufacturing parts related to solar plant. For this project, the company submitted online and offline applications at the office of Invest UP at PICUP Bhawan, Gomti Nagar.
The project was vetted by a committee of Invest UP and approved. According to the FIR, a senior official of Invest UP asked Dutt to contact one Nikant Jain and handed over his cell phone number. When Dutt contacted Jain over the phone, the latter allegedly demanded 5% of the total cost of the project as kickback.
When Dutt refused, the project was again sent for re-evaluation by the Invest UP CEO. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had on May 20 suspended Invest UP CEO Abhishek Prakash over allegations of seeking bribe in approving a solar power plant project and ordered a probe against him. The same day, the Lucknow police arrested Nikant Jain.
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