Nainital: Uttarakhand High Court on Friday refused
to quash an FIR against yoga guru Ramdev`s aide Balkrishna
filed by CBI for allegedly using fake educational degrees for
procuring a passport but said that the stay on his arrest
would continue.
Pronouncing its verdict on a petition of Balkrishna
seeking quashing of the FIR against him, Justice Tarun Agrawal
directed him to cooperate with the CBI in the investigations
and barred him from leaving the country till the time the
probe is completed, said Nandan Srivastava and Rajendra
Dobhal, counsel for the petitioner.
The court also said that the Registrar of the High Court
would be the custodian of his passport till the case is
finalised by the CBI. In case, the trial court requires the
passport, it might submit a written request to the Registrar
for the same.
While noting that the case is making slow progress, the
court said in light of some decisions of the Supreme Court
regarding quashing of FIRs, it had decided not to quash the
FIR.
Earlier, the final hearing on the petition of Balkrishna
were concluded on Nov 30.
Balkrishna had moved the High Court after CBI had
registered a case against him on Jul 23 for cheating and
criminal conspiracy for procuring fake degree and violation of
section 12 of Indian Passport act for furnishing fake
documents to get a passport. The High Court had granted a stay
on arrest of Balkrishna on Jul 29.
In complaince with the court`s order, Balkrishna appeared
before the CBI office in Dehradun twice.
Later, the CBI had also sent a notice to Balkrishna
asking him to present his orginal documents related to his
education to the agency office.
However, official sources claimed that the envelope
delivered to the CBI by Balkrishna through his lawyer on Aug
27 did not have any document but his ration card only.
PTI
