DWB illegal appointments: Delhi court grants bail to AAP MLA, 10 others

A Delhi court on Wednesday granted bail to Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan in connection with the case related to alleged illegal appointments in the Delhi Waqf Board (DWB).

The case was registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Special CBI Judge M. K. Nagpal of Rouse Avenue Courts observed that it is an apt case where accused should be given bail in pending trial and he found no ground for taking all 11 of them into custody including Khan, who is also the Chairman of the Waqf Board.

Though the CBI has alleged that a loss of over Rs 27 lakh was caused to the government exchequer in the form of salaries or other emoluments, no one was arrested by the agency during its probe.

The court had summoned the accused in November last year after taking cognisance of offences in the CBI's FIR.

On their appearance, they were released on personal bonds till disposal of their regular bail applications.

While granting bail, the judge said that the non-arrest of an accused during investigation is a vital or prime factor which has to be considered while considering the question of grant of bail.

The court noted that though the charge sheet in the case was filed by CBI in August last year for commission of offence of criminal conspiracy under section 120AB of IPC read with sections 13(2) and 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the FIR was registered long back in November 2016.

It said that the investigation "had been pending with the CBI for a long period of around six years" and during this period there was "sufficient time and opportunity available to the Investigation Officer (IO) of case to arrest the applicants or any of them".

"However, still the IO or the CBI had taken a conscious decision not to arrest any of the above applicants in this case and the IO has charge sheeted them before this court without arrest," the court said.

The judge observed that "morally and also legally" in view of the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court, the CBI "should not have any right to oppose" the request for bail being made by the accused persons and that it should be left to the court to consider the matter on merits.

The court said that admittedly, there are no allegations made against any of the accused persons for demand, payment or acceptance of bribe in connection with the appointments and that provisions of the PC Act were invoked because it was alleged that the public offices of Khan and Mahboob Alam, then Chief Executive Officer of the DWB, were abused or misused.

"Again, further investigation in the matter may take a long time to conclude and there is no purpose behind taking or keeping the accused persons in custody awaiting conclusion thereof," the judge said.

However, the CBI opposed bail, saying that the accused may tamper with evidence of case or influence the witnesses or ongoing investigation.

To this, the court observed prima facie that such apprehensions are "baseless and without any reasons" as investigation has already been completed and most of the evidence collected during investigation is documentary in nature.