Chandigarh, June 11

The Punjab and Haryana HC today granted interim anticipatory bail to Bachitar Singh, PA to the Punjab jails minister, in a cheating and criminal conspiracy case. Taking up the matter, Justice Manoj Bajaj of the HC fixed September 6 as the next date of hearing.

Appearing on his behalf through videoconferencing, senior advocate RS Rai and counsel Gautam Dutt told Justice Bajaj’s Bench that the petitioner was falsely implicated in the case to “scandalise the FIR”. “To scandalise the matter, the name of the petitioner has been introduced. It is alleged the petitioner was working as a secretary to a minister and had given an assurance to the complainant. Even for the sake of the argument, although not admitted, a normal phone call to someone on someone else’s behalf would not be good enough to prove conspiracy,” the Bench was told. — TNS

Punjab jails minister’s PA gets interim bail
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