Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi was granted bail in a murder case by a court in Raipur on Tuesday, a day after he was arrested. Additional District and Sessions Judge B L Tidke asked the senior Congress leader to furnish two bonds of Rs 50,000 each and a personal surety of Rs 1 lakh for the bail.
The judge also asked Jogi not to influence witnesses and to be present in the court for hearing. Jogi, a bureaucrat-turned-politician, was arrested on Monday on charges of conspiracy and alleged involvement in the murder of state NCP treasurer Ram Avatar Jaggi in June 2003.
He was later admitted to Escorts Hospital in Raipur after he complained of chest pain. Currently in the hospital's ICU, Jogi is a paralytic patient and there is no chance of him absconding, the court observed while ruling on his bail plea.
In the FIR registered by police in Mohdapara, Jogi was not named as an accused. In the CBI chargesheet filed on July 22, 2005, the Congress MP from Mahasamund was not made an accused, the judge noted. Since another accused in the case, Jogi's son Amit, had been granted bail, the MP should also be given bail, the court observed.
© Copyright 2007 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.
|