New Delhi, Nov 5 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Monday turned down the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) plea and gave bail to former Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Akhand Pratap Singh, arrested for owning assets disproportionate to his income.
Rejecting the CBI plea, Justice V.B. Gupta said the stay imposed on a lower court’s order on the release of the former top bureaucrat had been lifted.
The trial court had remanded him in 14 days’ judicial custody after the interrogation was over. On Oct 22, the day he was to be released on bail granted by the district court, the CBI had approached the high court for cancellation of his bail.
But the court said: “Nothing is on record which shows that he would try to tamper with evidence after the lower court’s order.
“If evidence is tampered with after his release on bail, the petitioner (CBI) will be at liberty to approach the trial court for cancellation of bail,” Justice Gupta said.
During the arguments, the CBI had contended that the lower court neglected the relevant aspects of the investigation while pronouncing the judgement on the basis of irrelevant points.
“The investigations are still going on and the release of Singh at this stage would hamper the probe. Let me complete the investigations first and file the chargesheet. After that he might be released on bail,” Additional Solicitor General P.P. Malhotra had said while appearing on behalf of the CBI.
He referred to the former bureaucrat as a “menace to society”.
Singh’s advocate contended that his client was sent to police custody for 15 days, and that period was sufficient for any interrogation.
Singh was arrested Sep 25 from his farmhouse in south Delhi’s Vasant Kunj in the case registered in 2005. He was lodged in Tihar jail after his CBI custody ended on Oct 11.
According to the corruption case registered against him in 2005, Singh acquired as many as 84 immovable properties in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand worth Rs.2 billion.
He was also accused of forging the signatures of his dead father and a friend for transferring the properties and routing financial transactions through several fictitious bank accounts.