Justice D K Jain directed the release of Malessam Gaud on his furnishing a personal bond of Rs one lakh and a surety of the like amount.

The judge imposed several conditions before granting the bail including that the passport of Gaud would be with the CBI to ensure that he did not move out of the country without the permission of the agency or the court.

The accused was also directed not to tamper with the evidence as a condition for the bail.

An employee of the Turkish company Karsan's Indian agent Sambasiva Rao, Gaud was sent to judicial custody on January 12 this year after he appeared before the trial court.

After the special judge rejected his bail application thrice, he moved to the high court.

The two Turkish officials of Karsan Ltd. -- Chian Karanchi and TunkeyAlankus -- who were the key accused in the case are also lodged in the Tihar jail for not making the payment for urea which was supplied by the National Fertilisers Ltd (NFL).

The CBI has chargesheeted nine persons including B Sanjeeva Rao, a close relative of former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, on charges of forgery and cheating.

Among the other accused are, foreign national A E Pinto, who allegedly brokered the urea import deal with the Turkish firm, former managing director of NFL C K Ramakrishnan, who has been charged with paying the entire contract amount to Karsan official with receiving any urea, and former NFL executive director D S Kanwar.

Sambasiva Rao of Hyderabad who was the Indian agent of the Turkish firm, and Prakash Chandra Yadav, son of former Union chemicals and fertilizers minister Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, are the other prominent accused.