Panipat rural MLA Om Prakash Jain and Assandh (Karnal) MLA Zile Ram Sharma, accused for abetting suicide of former sarpanch of Kambopura village in Karnal, got breather from Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday as it stayed their arrest till September 10. But with a rider, that they shall remain personally present in the court on September 10.
The directions came from the court headed by justice Daya Chaudhary while hearing their anticipatory bail petitions on Friday.
The special CBI court, Panchkula had rejected Jain's bail petition on August 21 and had on August 30 issued non-bailable warrants against him and Sharma when they failed to appear before the court. Till then both were on run.
Former sarpanch, Karam Singh, 60, was found dead on June 7, 2011, at Karnal. An FIR was registered on the same day under sections 302 (murder) 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the civil lines police station, Karnal. Later, the special investigating team (SIT) had ruled out murder, declaring that it was a case of suicide.
However, on a petition filed by Karam Singh's son Rajender, seeking a CBI investigation while raising questions about the probe conducted by the state crime branch's SIT, the high court had handed over case to the CBI on August 30 last year.
{{/usCountry}}However, on a petition filed by Karam Singh's son Rajender, seeking a CBI investigation while raising questions about the probe conducted by the state crime branch's SIT, the high court had handed over case to the CBI on August 30 last year.
{{/usCountry}}Jain was one of the seven independent MLAs to help the Congress form the government in Haryana in 2009. Sharma was one of the five Haryana Janhit Congress MLAs who joined the Congress after the election results. Jain was later inducted as state transport minister and Sharma as chief parliamentary secretary. Both had resigned from their posts on June 9, 2011, after protests by Karam Singh's family.