New Delhi: It is straight out of 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not' series. Two persons, convicted along with big bull Harshad Mehta for the country's biggest financial scam of the century, did not even suffer a single day's imprisonment!

The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) worked its heart out in gathering evidence and getting them convicted first before the trial court and then successfully defended it before the Supreme Court.

But still its success is marred by the fact that both the convicts did not even spend a single day in prison despite hitting at the root of country's financial system in a scam that left several lakh small investors dazed for years.

A special court at Mumbai trying the security scam cases had convicted former deputy finance director of Maruti Udyog Limited P K Manocha and UCO Bank official Vinayak Narayan Deosthali and sentenced both of them to five years imprisonment while Manocha was asked to pay a fine of Rs 25,000, Deosthali was fined Rs 2,35,000.

During the appeal before the Supreme Court, Mehta died. The apex court, to the delight of CBI the investigating agency probing the case, in January 2003 upheld the conviction of the two and the fine imposed on them.

However, keeping in mind that the scam took place more than 10 years ago and the lengthy trial, the apex court bench said, "We feel custodial sentence for the period already undergone (which we are told was for a number of months) would meet the ends of justice." If at all the words appearing in bracket of the apex court judgment were true, CBI would not have felt a sense of discontent amidst the feeling of accomplishment of taking the case to the logical conclusion.

But, the time it took to put it in black and white the cause of despair in the form of an application came in the way of getting any relief from the Supreme Court.

CBI filed an application on December 17, 2003 a clear 11 months after the passing of the final judgment, bringing to the court's notice the details of the case pertaining to the two Manocha and Deosthali.

On Deosthali, CBI said he was arrested on August 26, 1994 and was produced before the special judge on the same day and was released on bail on the very day and continued to remain on bail throughout the trial before the special court.

The special court, though convicted him for five years, kept the order in suspension allowing him to file appeal against it before the Supreme Court. The apex court, while accepting the appeal for hearing, granted him bail and he continued to be on bail during the entire period for which the matter was pending adjudication, the CBI said in its application.

"It would be seen from the above that in fact, Deosthali had not undergone even a single day of imprisonment," the CBI said seeking "appropriate orders" from the apex court "in the interest of justice".

The application came for hearing before a bench comprising Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice B N Agrawal and Justice Arijit Pasayat on Friday and it took less than a minute to dismiss CBI's application. Reason is that the application is filed more than a year after the judgment was pronounced.