By IANA
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Thursday allowed controversial godman Chandraswami, facing prosecution in 11 Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) cases, to go abroad.
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul dismissed the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) plea that the accused might not come back to face trial in the country if he was permitted to go abroad.
Allowing Chandraswami’s plea to visit Britain, the UAE and Mauritius for a period of one month, the court, however, raised the security amount to Rs.1 million per case.
Earlier, two trial courts in Delhi also had given permission to Chandraswami to go abroad and asked him to deposit Rs.200,000 as security in the court.
“I am eagerly waiting for the Delhi High Court’s decision allowing me to meet my followers abroad,” Chandraswami told IANS a month ago.
Chandraswami was once considered close to many politicians like former prime ministers P.V. Narasimha Rao and Chandra Shekhar.
Chandraswami, whose original name is Nemi Chand Jain, is facing trial in 11 FERA violation cases. He could face penalties of millions of rupees if found guilty.
He was charged in what was called the St Kitts case that sought to show that former prime minister V.P. Singh had stashed away wealth in a bank in the tiny Caribbean island by allegedly forging the signature of his son Ajeya Singh. But the charges could not be proved in court.