[lang_en]Shimla: The Himachal High Court on Wednesday granted conditional bail to IAS officer Subhash Ahluwalia in a disproportionate asset case.
Justice SS Thakur, while allowing the bail imposed conditions that the accused would not leave the station without prior permission of he state vigilance bureau. He also asked Ahluwalia to appear before the investigators as and when his presence is sought by them in the case.
Defense counsel MS Chandel on moving the bail application maintained that the police had made a wrong assessment of the assets of Ahluwalia. He also let the court know that the accused had been cooperating with the investigation all along and would continue to do so.
Investigators have made out a case of disproportionate asset case against the bureaucrat, who was the private secretary to former chief minister Virbhadra Singh. Following registration of a case on May 22, the house and office of the bureaucrat were raided and documents and computers seized.
The vigilance sleuths came up with an undeclared income of Rs 2.30 crore for a five year period under scrutiny where as according to the police investigation salary and other incomes of both husband and wife should not have exceeded more than Rs 60.50 lakhs for the check period.
After the investigators failed to make a breakthrough, the bureaucrat was arrested from his Panchkula residence and was taken into police remand. With the officer reporting ill and being admitted to hospital, the remand after being extended once was converted into judicial custody last Monday.
With the officers arrest, first he was put under deemed suspension and later the government put out orders of formally suspending him. Treating doctors hold that the accused is suffering from chronic diseases, including diabetes and hypertension and would need long term treatments.[/lang_en]
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
Finally sanity prevailed. The torture and harassment that government in power tries to inflict on “ex-government branded officials” is a direct outcome of extreme political vendetta. Although i strongly believe that removing corruption from our society is extremely important but the question that arises is whether corruption is a prevalent only in party A or Party B?? Why does BJP target officials branded as Congress workers and vice versa? What would happen when congress would come to power? Amidst these political rivalries, the common man should realize the root of this media projection which is being channelized by the ruling government. Let me be an astrologer and tell you that after 5 years a few BJP Politicians (who are currently role models for the public)would be facing the same inquiries and undergoing the same cases. Do we need to resort back to princely states where we atleast would not blame ourselves for what is happening in the state? or should we understand the vote driven strategies that parties use to play with people’s sentiments? This question only you can answer.
I must say, there is some brilliant lawyer defending Mr. Ahluwalia. Firstly, his entire remand period ended up in hospital and now he has been bailed out. Who ever is defending his case knows his way out with the legal system. Mr. Ahluwalia now has to fight his case in courts and once there is a change in govt, he will have nothing to worry about.