The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday told the special court that Krishna Mahadik, superintendent at the directorate general of customs and excise (intelligence), had demanded a bribe of over Rs 1.09 crore from Jalna-based industrialist Dinesh Bharuka for reducing excise duty of Rs 10 crore to Rs 3.25 crore. Mahadik was arrested for accepting Rs 1.09 crore from two industrialists recently.

Opposing bail pleas of Mahadik, Bharuka and industrialist Surender Pitti before the special judge J D Kulkarni, CBI special public prosecutors Vivek Saxena and Ayub Pathan read the statements of witnesses to prove that Mahadik had demanded the money for adjusting the excise duty.

The prosecutors said that the statement of customs and excise commissioner Y B Singh and other circumstances do not to prove that Pitti and Bharuka had paid the bribe to Mahadik. They informed of recovering Bharuka's file from Mahadik's car and seizing vital documents from his residence.

The CBI prayed to reject their bail pleas fearing that they may create obstructions in the probe or may tamper with the evidence as the accused are well connected with public servants and others involved in excise duty evasion.

Lawyer Pratap Pardeshi, who represented Mahadik, said his client was not well and should be given bail. Lawyer Shrikant Shivade, representing Pitti, said that section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act was not applicable in the case as there was no nexus between his client and Bharuka.

Lawyer Harshad Nimbalkar, who represented Bharuka, furnished a bank statement to prove that the huge amount was withdrawn from his account.

Nimbalkar denied the charge that Bharuka was present at the time of handing over the bribe to Mahadik, but he claimed that Bharuka had business relations with Pitti. The CBI told the special court on Thursday that Bharuka was one of the directors of M/s Om Sai Ram Steels Private Limited and the money showing transactions was withdraw by the firm and not from his personal account.

The court reserved its order on the bail pleas till Friday.