Times of India
November 25

Uzbek national Olga Kozireva, involved in a customs case and lodged in the Tihar jail for 27 months for want of a surety to facilitate her release on bail, will now be released from the prison.

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered her release on furnishing a fixed deposit of Rs 10,000. She had been earlier been given bail on the condition that she would provide a surety which she could not find being a foreigner.

Olga was arrested by the CBI two years ago for allegedly smuggling Chinese silk into India from Uzbekistan. The CBI had alleged that she was in collusion with certain customs officials at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, who helped her in the illegal activity.

An SC Bench, comprising Justice M B Shah and Justice D M Dharmadhikari, said that all other bail conditions imposed by the trial court had to be complied with and the fixed deposit would substitute the surety.

Department of Customs and CBI's counsel K K Sud said he was not opposing the release of Olga Kozireva as she has already spent 27 months in prison.

However, the Bench directed her not to leave Delhi without the court's permission and asked her to furnish her residential address in Delhi to the trial court.

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