Panchayat fund scam: HC grants anticipatory bail to ex MLA Jalalpur

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Madan Lal Jalalpur, former Congress MLA from Ghanaur in Patiala, in an alleged multi-crore panchayati raj fund scam.

Chandigarh

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Madan Lal Jalalpur, former Congress MLA from Ghanaur in Patiala, in an alleged multi-crore panchayati raj fund scam.

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Madan Lal Jalalpur, former Congress MLA from Ghanaur in Patiala, in an alleged multi-crore panchayati raj fund scam.

The high court bench of justice Raj Mohan Singh ordered that Jalalpur be released on bail in the event of arrest and directed him to appear before the investigating officer within 10 days.

He has been nominated in an FIR registered by Punjab vigilance bureau on May 26, 2022. Initial FIR was registered against 27 persons on allegations that resolutions were passed by two panchayats whereas on the spot, no work had been done for certain projects.

So far, a challan has been presented against 15 persons. The former MLAs name cropped up during investigation when claims were made by an accused that he was paid ₹1.5 crore.

Later, it was also claimed by the prosecution that entries were found in the diary of an accused of payments of ₹9.5 crore to the son of Jalalpur. He had argued that maintaining a diary in the context of these allegations with random entries would be debatable.