Stay on Amar Singh's arrest extended till October 28

The Allahabad High Court on Monday extended till October 28 the stay on the arrest of Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh in connection with an FIR accusing him of having committed financial irregularities when Samajwadi Party was in power in Uttar Pradesh.

The order was passed by a Division Bench comprising justices Vineet Saran and Y C Gupta on a writ petition filed by Singh who was himself present in the court along with fellow RS member Ram Jethmalani.

Singh had moved the court challenging the FIR filed last year at Babupurwa police station of Kanpur by Shivkant Tripathi who had alleged that the former SP general secretary, who was chairman of the UP Development Council when the party was in power, had been responsible for financial irregularities in awarding contracts to a number of private companies.

Singh has refuted the allegations saying that the post of the chairman of the Development Council was advisory in nature and he had no say in awarding of contracts to any private company.

A separate writ petition, filed by Tripathi, seeking the court's directions for expeditious investigation into the matter has also been clubbed together with Singh's petition.

The matter will now be taken up for hearing on October 28.