E-Paper
DA probe: High court restrains Punjab VB from arresting BIS Chahal till August 7
The court acted on the plea from former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s ex-adviser Bharat Inder Singh Chahal, seeking anticipatory bail in which he had argued that an inquiry with regards to two properties have been opened by the bureau and his apprehensions were that in the garb of this, he would be arrested
The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has restrained Punjab Vigilance Bureau from arresting former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s ex-adviser Bharat Inder Singh Chahal in an alleged disproportionate assets (DA) case.
The court acted on the plea from Chahal, seeking anticipatory bail in which he had argued that an inquiry with regards to two properties have been opened by the bureau and his apprehensions were that in the garb of this, he would be arrested.
On June 1, HC had restrained VB from taking action pursuant to the probe. Now, the high court has modified that order and said that VB is permitted to conclude the inquiry and to give effect to the same and in case, they come to the conclusion that an FIR is required to be registered, then the bureau would hand over a copy of the FIR to his counsel and would not arrest him till next date of hearing on August 7.
Earlier, the state’s counsel had told the court that vigilance is not able to take a final decision about the registration of the FIR in view of the June 1 order. Hence, the order be modified, and the state be permitted to conclude the inquiry.
The inquiry was initiated by VB in November 2022 in respect of two properties — a marriage palace on Patiala-Fatehgarh Sahib Road and construction on a commercial site located at PUDA Enclave-1, Nabha Road, Patiala.
In 2007, Chahal was booked for corruption during the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP rule and faced a probe by the vigilance. In 2016, he was acquitted in the case as all 77 government witnesses turned hostile. Chahal joined the BJP along with Amarinder in July last year.
