The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Saturday, January 26, 2002, Chandigarh, India

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Manu Sharma gets bail

New Delhi, January 25
Delhi High Court today granted six weeks interim bail to Manu Sharma, the prime accused in the Jessica Lal murder case.

Justice R.C. Chopra granted bail to Manu after the prosecution admitted that only two important (public) witnesses remained to be examined and they were not currently available.

Justice Chopra said the bail was conditional to Manu furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and two sureties of like amount.

Manu will have to surrender before the court after the completion of six week, the court said.

He has been directed not to leave the country without the court’s permission and also not to enter Delhi except on the dates of the trial, the court UNI

Malout poll adjourned
SAD nominee Sujan Singh dead
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 25
The election to the Malout Assembly seat has been adjourned following the death of the official SAD candidate, Mr Sujan Singh, who was a Minister of state.

The Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Mrs Usha R. Sharma, today said that the Election Commission had been informed. It would take appropriate action. A minimum of seven days’ notice was required to allow the naming of a substitute candidate. The actual process of countermanding of the election to that seat would be done by the commission. In any case, Malout could not go to the polls on February 13 along with the rest of the state.

Meanwhile, the process of withdrawals is in progress. Against a total of 1,495 nomination papers filed for 117 Assembly constituencies, the number left in the fray, as of today, was 1,147 after 346 rejections and two withdrawals. The last date of withdrawals is January 28.

Mrs Sharma said that as per the new instructions of the commission, in accordance with the Model Code of Conduct, “all financial institutions funded, partially or fully, by the state government should not take recourse to writing off loans advanced to any individual, company, firm, etc, during the period when the Model Code of Conduct is in force, without the prior permission of the commission. Similarly, the financial limits that these institutions have adhered to while granting or extending loans should not be enhanced by issuing loans indiscriminately to beneficiaries when the Model Code of Conduct is in force.

She also said that time slots had been allotted to the national and state parties on Doordarshan/AIR. The parties would present their views as per the following schedule (in minutes): SAD 180, Congress 175, BJP 80, BSP 70, CPI 60, CPM 55, SAD (Simranjit Singh Mann) 60 and NCP 45.

Similarly, all six national and two state parties had been allotted time for panel discussion in two groups of four each.

Mrs Sharma said the Department of Information and Public Relations had transferred the three District Public Relations Officers of Ropar, Ludhiana and Sangrur. The Department of Local Government had modified the transfer orders of 105-odd employees after the election office had frowned at its action. Now the election office had allowed about 85 transfers. The transfer order of Dr D.C. Sharma of the Patiala Municipal Corporation had been cancelled.

There were reports of some action having been initiated against those candidates who had violated the Model Code of Conduct by taking out large processions when they went to file their nomination papers. But no Deputy Commissioner or Senior Superintendent of Police had sent any report in this respect to the election office here. Action taken reports had been “orally conveyed” by the Ropar and Amritsar Deputy Commissioners to the Chief Electoral Officer, Mr G.S. Cheema, she added. So far, the election office had received 648 complaints.