HC frees tainted former UP chief secy

In a reprieve to former UP chief secretary, Akhand Pratap Singh, Delhi HC has ordered his release while rejecting the CBI’s application to cancel his bail granted by a lower court, reports Bhadra Sinha.

In a reprieve to former Uttar Pradesh chief secretary, Akhand Pratap Singh, Delhi High Court on Monday ordered his release while rejecting the CBI’s application to cancel his bail granted by a lower court.

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Singh was arrested in a disproportionate assets case and was in judicial custody when the special CBI court in Patiala House allowed his bail plea on October 18.

Justice VB Gupta lifted the stay imposed by him on the lower court’s order.

“Nothing is on record to show that he tried to tamper with evidence after the lower court’s order,” said Justice Gupta while granting liberty to the CBI to approach the trial court if Singh is found to have tampered with the evidence.

Justice Gupta had stayed the bail order on October 22 passed by the trial court.

Challenging the bail order, the investigating agency had contended that the lower court neglected the relevant aspects of the investigation while pronouncing the judgement on the basis of irrelevant points.

Singh was arrested on September 25 in the case registered in 2005. It was alleged that he had acquired as many as 92 immovable properties in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand worth over Rs 5 crore.

He was also accused of forging the signatures of his dead father and a friend for transferring the properties and routing financial transactions through several fictitious bank accounts.