Chandigarh: Parking contractor accused of ₹7-crore fraud denied bail again

After the firm failed to pay licence fee worth ₹7 crore to Chandigarh MC, the civic body approached the bank concerned to recover the money through bank guarantees submitted by the contractor, only to find the guarantees to be fake

A local court has once again dismissed the bail application of Sanjay Sharma, director of Paschatya Entertainment Private Limited, who is accused of providing forged bank guarantees to the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) for a parking contract.

The second bail application was moved citing that since the charge sheet had been filed by the police, nothing was to be recovered from him. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The firm was awarded the contract of 57 Zone-2 parking lots in 2020 that got over in January this year. But it failed to pay licence fee worth ₹7 crore to MC, following which the civic body approached the bank concerned to recover the money through bank guarantees submitted by the contractor.

It was then found that three guarantees for ₹1.65 crore each were fake. Subsequently, a cheating case was registered against the firm’s director Sanjay Sharma in February.

On March 7, police arrested Sanjay from his office in Delhi. This was followed by the arrest of six other accused. Earlier on May 18, a court had dismissed Sharma’s first bail plea.

The second bail application was moved citing that since the charge sheet had been filed by the police, nothing was to be recovered from him.

However, public prosecutor JP Singh pleaded that this submission held no ground. Also, if granted bail, he can influence the witnesses.

After hearing the arguments, the court of additional district and sessions judge dismissed the bail application.