New Delhi, May 27: A day after granting bail to two sacked DDA officials accused in the DDA scam, the Delhi High Court today ordered the release of former DDA vice chairman Subhash Sharma after the CBI agreed to his release with certain conditions. Justice S K Agrawal, who had yesterday enlarged DDA Commissioner (land disposal) Anand Mohan Sharan and Director (land) Jagdish Chander on bail, directed Sharma to furnish a personal bond of Rs two lakh with one surety of the same amount to the satisfaction of the trial court. However, Sharma, whose name figured in all the four firs in the scam, would not be released immediately as he was yet to be granted bail in one of the cases in which former judge Shameet Mukherjee was a co-accused. Like the other two accused, he has also been asked not to leave the country without the permission of the court and surrender his passport if any.
The court also directed him not to tamper with evidence, refrain from contacting witnesses, cooperate in the probe and not to visit DDA office without informing the investigating officer of the case.
At the very outset, the court asked CBI counsel A K Dutt to tell if the agency would be able to file the chargesheet within 60 days, failing which the accused would be entitled to statutory bail and granted bail to Sharma after getting the answer in the negative.
Under the proviso of Section 167(2) of CRPC, an accused arrested for an offence punishable with imprisonment up to seven years, is entitled to bail, if the prosecution fails to file the chargesheet within 60 days.
Bureau Report