Mumbai, Dec. 27 -- The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Purushottam Chavan, the former husband of an IPS officer, and three others in an alleged Rs.263-crore TDS fraud case. The court observed that the applicants had spent a considerable amount of time in custody, with no possibility of the trial commencing any time soon. After the trial court rejected their bail applications on grounds of "serious fraud", Chavan, along with Bhushan Patil, Tanaji Adhikari and Rajesh Batreja, had approached the high court, seeking bail in connection with an FIR registered against them on January 23, 2022, for criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, forgery, illegal gratification, criminal misconduct, etc. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleged that Adhikari, the then senior tax assistant (later promoted as Inspector of Income Tax), used his senior's login credentials and RSA token to fraudulently generate 12 TDS orders amounting to Rs.263 crore. Purushottam Chavan was also allegedly involved in the illegal dealings between August 2023 and November 2023, and an additional transaction of Rs.11 crore. Counsel for the applicants submitted that they had spent from 18 months to over two years in custody, with no sight of the trial concluding any time soon. They said Chavan and Batreja are not accused in the scheduled offence, and "their detention in jail for an uncertain period will not serve any purpose". Granting bail to the four accused, the court observed that "there is no possibility of the case being heard and disposed of within a year or two". Quoting that "detention or jail before being pronounced guilty of an offence should not become punishment without trial", the bench allowed their bail applications after executing a personal bond in the sum of Rs.3 lakh each....