Kolkata, May 16 : A CBI court in Asansol on Tuesday granted bail to Vikas Mishra, the younger brother of Vinay Mishra who is the prime accused in the alleged multi-crore coal smuggling scam in West Bengal.
Vikas Mishra was taken to custody for four days from the premises of the same court on May 12.
The four-day custody tenure ended on Tuesday following which the judge of the special court granted him bail.
Vinay Mishra, a former youth Trinamool Congress leader, is currently absconding, and as believed by the CBI, he is currently underground at Vanuatu Island.
A few months ago, the Calcutta High Court had granted conditional bail to Vikas Mishra, which was challenged by the CBI at the Supreme Court.
The central agency sought his fresh custody for interrogation related to the alleged coal smuggling scam.
The apex court on April 10 approved the CBI's plea and directed the central agency sleuths to take him into custody but four days.
Accordingly, the probe agency took him into custody on May 12.
The CBI had recently become active again in its investigation in the case.
The agency arrested Sunil Jha, a former director of Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL), and Anand Kumar Singh, a former inspector of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).
Both, according to the CBI, were beneficiaries of the alleged scam and had close connection with the kingpin of the alleged scam, Anup Maji a.k.a. Lala.
/IANS