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High court grants bail to TV journalist, associates in Ludhiana accident case
The three said they were booked as they were part of the recent expose by the TV news channel about the expenditure incurred on renovating Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s residence
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday granted bail to a Delhi-based journalist representing a national news channel, Bhawana Gupta, and two of her associates, arrested in Ludhiana in an accident case.
Gupta along with Mritunjay Kumar, the video journalist of the channel, and Parmender Singh Rawat, the driver of the vehicle, were booked last Thursday when their car allegedly hit a woman in Ludhiana, where they were covering an event to be attended by Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
They approached the high court on Saturday and Gupta was granted interim bail.
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After a detailed hearing on Tuesday, the high court bench of justice AG Masih granted regular bail to all three, their lawyers Chetan Mittal, RS Rai and Gautam Dutt said.
The government had denied allegations of any political motive behind the registration of the FIR.
The allegations against the petitioners have been corroborated by two independent eyewitnesses, the government said. “There is convincing, tangible and direct evidence against the petitioners which has been collected by the local police. The petitioners have presented a false and concocted story regarding the political motive behind the registration of the FIR just to malign the image of the police,” it said.
The trio had sought quashing of the FIR by Ludhiana police and stay on the proceedings. As an interim measure, they demanded that all three be allowed bail.
The case was registered for rash driving, causing hurt and under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (prevention of atrocities) Act.
They claimed that they were involved in the FIR as they were part of the expose done by the channel about the expenditure incurred on the renovation of Kejriwal’s official residence.
