SC protects BIS Chahal from arrest in disproportionate assets case

The Supreme Court on Monday protected from arrest Bharat Inder Singh Chahal, former media advisor to the then Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who is accused of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

“In the meantime, no coercive measures be taken against the petitioner provided the petitioner extends all cooperation during the investigation and trial,” a Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Prasanna B Varale said in its order.

Issuing notice on Chahal’s petition challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order dismissing his anticipatory bail application, the Bench asked the Punjab Government to file its response in four weeks.

The order came after senior counsel Siddharth Luthra submitted that Chahal (76) was suffering from various ailments and that he was ready to cooperate with the investigation.

Terming it as a “politically motivated” case, the petitioner submitted that the high court’s October 4 order was based on “wholly untenable grounds” and was “replete with factual inaccuracies”.

Asserting that custodial interrogation of the accused was required to ascertain the source of the alleged assets and facilitate fair probe, the high court had on October 4 dismissed his anticipatory bail plea.

“The arrest of the petitioner is very much necessary to interrogate him for eliciting the actual source of disproportionate assets and to complete the investigation in a fair and transparent manner,” the high court had said.

Chahal served as media advisor to the Punjab Chief Minister from April 1, 2017 to August 31, 2021 and the disproportionate assets FIR was lodged against him on August 2, 2023 under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act -- within two years of his demitting the office.