Arun Gupte, counsel for DRI today submitted that Rakesh Mittal, a relative of the accused, and suspectedly possessing a lot of documents relating to the case, was still absconding. He said the DRI had received a report from the Indian Consulate in Hong Kong, the destination of the export, which confirms that the parties who sent the advance remittances to the Agarwal brothers, were not the parties purportedly importing the watches.

He also gave a copy of the report received from Hong Kong, to the court with the request that the accused not be allowed access to the same.

The Agarwal brothers, who ran a company in the name of SelectImpex, are under investigation for the export of 1,960 quartz analog watches with gold straps to HK, via Dubai, for which they claimed DEPB at the rate of 21 per cent. While the DRI first started investigating the DEPB angle, the vigilance department of Customs stepped in and directed the investigations into the question of whether the gold was exported at all.

A fresh DRI probe is now looking into the possibility that no gold went abroad, and the remittances received purportedly towards the `exports' are in fact, somebody's dirty money being laundered. Meanwhile, some officers of the Customs and DRI themselves are now under a cloud over their `involvement' in the case.

Counsel for the accused, D U Mirajkar today argued that the DRI had been changing its versions all along and that the argument that Mittal was still absconding was not valid to seek further custody of any accused. He also argued that the authorities in Hong Kong were not legally competent to investigate the facts.

The order on the bailapplication has been reserved till Friday.