Thaindian News

Mumbai, Aug 6 (IANS) A Mumbai court Thursday granted bail to former union minister Buta Singh’s son Sarabjot alias Sweety Singh and his three associates in a Rs 1 crore corruption case, a legal official said.
Sessions Judge S.P.H. Nagarkar, while granting bail, said that the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) had almost completed its probe into the corruption case for which the four were arrested.

“Accordingly, the court ruled that there was no need to continue them in further judicial custody and they were granted bail,” CBI Senior Public Prosecutor Ejaz Khan said.

The four, who are at present lodged in the Arthur Road Jail, are expected to be out on bail by Friday. The court has ordered them to regularly report to the local CBI offices in their respective cities of residence.

Earlier, the CBI, which arrested the accused last week (July 30), had secured their police custody till Thursday, Khan said.

Khan said the CBI had sought extension of their police custody but was declined by Sessions Judge Nagarkar, who sent them to judicial custody.

“The court said that since the CBI has almost completed its investigations in the case, there was no need to grant police custody for the accused,” Khan told IANS.

On Wednesday, the four accused were sent to judicial custody till Aug 12.

On July 30, Singh was caught taking a bribe of Rs.1 crore (FRs.10 million) from Nashik-based contractor Ramraj Patil, in return for withdrawing a case of atrocities against the Scheduled Castes filed against him. Singh was brought to Mumbai the same night and subsequently arrested.

Along with Singh, the CBI nabbed three of his accomplices Anoop Bedi, Madan Solanki, and Dukhsingh Chauhan for their involvement in the same case from different parts of the country, including Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune.

Patil in his complaint had alleged that Sarabjot Singh had demanded a bribe of Rs.3 crore for withdrawal of an atrocities case under the SC/ST Act, filed against him (Patil) by a group of local conservancy workers he had employed.

Sarabjot Singh was nabbed by CBI sleuths when he was allegedly accepting Rs.1 crore - as the first instalment of the bribe money- in New Delhi last week.