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Corruption case: Not safe to release IAS officer Popli on bail: Punjab and Haryana HC
The Punjab and Haryana high court has said the enormity of wealth and valuables recovered from Punjab IAS officer Sanjay Popli goes a long way to show that he would have much to explain.
Chandigarh
The Punjab and Haryana high court has said the enormity of wealth and valuables recovered from Punjab IAS officer Sanjay Popli goes a long way to show that he would have much to explain.
The observations from the high court bench of justice Gurvinder Singh Gill came on the bail plea of the IAS officer.
The court observed that recoveries made, especially the extent of gold and valuables and the fact that probe into the August 6, 2022, FIR on allegations of amassing wealth disproportionate to known sources of income, is still incomplete. Hence, it is not “safe” to release him on bail as he may tamper with/destroy/conceal the material evidence, which the investigating agency is still to lay hands on, the court observed.
According to the vigilance bureau, when searches were conducted at his Sector-11 house in Chandigarh, the bureau recovered 9 bricks of gold (1 kg each), 49 gold biscuits (weighing 3,160 gms), 12 gold coins (356 gm), 3 bricks of silver (1 kg each), 18 silver coins (18 gm each), four i-Phones, two Samsung smart watches and ₹3.5 lakh cash.
Popli, a 2008-batch IAS officer, was arrested by the state vigilance bureau on June 20 last year in a case pertaining to the allotment of tenders when he was posted as the chief executive officer of the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board.
Popli had approached the high court on October 20 after his plea was dismissed by a Mohali court on August 29.
The court observed that even though cash recovery was of ₹3.5 lakh there are other circumstances which point towards his “complicity”.
