New Delhi, January 12
Former Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) Chairman Ravinder Pal Singh Sidhu, facing three cases in connection with the “money-for-job scam”, was today granted bail by the Supreme Court after 22 months’ incarceration in judicial custody.
Imposing stringent conditions on him, a Bench comprising Mr Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Mr Justice B.N. Srikrishna directed him to execute a bail bond of Rs 5 lakh and two sureties of the like amount with the Special Court at Patiala and report on every alternate Saturday of the month to the Superintendent (Headquarters) at the Central police station, Mohali regularly for the next six months.
The court said after the expiry of six months, he would be required to report to the SP on every first Saturday of the month till the trial was over. He was also directed to surrender his passport to the SP and inform Special Judge A.N. Jindal about it.
Allowing his counsel K.T.S. Tulsi’s plea for bail, the court further directed his lawyer to intimate within two weeks the details of the residential address of Sidhu to the SP as well as the trial court when the Bench was told that the accused planned to stay at Chandigarh.
The stringent conditions were imposed on Sidhu by the court after Special Public Prosecutor R.S. Cheema said the Vigilance Bureau (VB) of the Punjab police had an apprehension that he might “flee from justice if released on bail”.
Mr Cheema opposed the bail on three counts — serious nature of the charges against Sidhu, possibility of his fleeing the country and tampering with evidence.
The prosecutor said the VB’s apprehension was not unfounded as Sidhu’s mother, brother and brother’s wife, who were co-accused in the case, had fled to the USA soon after his arrest in March, and the prosecution getting them declared as proclaimed offenders.
“The charges against the accused are very serious as the police had recovered assets worth Rs 13 crore from them, including Rs 1.5 crore from their bank lockers and over Rs 4 crore from their accounts. His mother, brother and brother’s wife were acting as conduits on his behalf to allure the job seekers,” Mr Cheema alleged.
When the court asked for how long an accused could be held in judicial custody if the trial proceedings were not going at a fast pace, Mr Cheema said if the court had decided to grant bail to Sidhu then “stringent” conditions should be imposed on him.
The bail was granted to him in the “trap case” in which the VB had allegedly recovered Rs 50 lakh from his premises, after the Special Judge had completed recording of the evidence of two approvers — Prem Sagar and Randhir Singh Dheera — which was set as the pre-condition by the apex court for accepting his bail plea.
He had already been granted bail in the Excise and Arms Act case pertaining to the alleged recovery of costly imported liquor bottles from his residence and cartridges of a revolver in March 2002 at the time of his arrest and the disproportionate assets case earlier.
