Shimla: After languishing in jail for 280 days, the High Court today granted bail to Haresh Sood, an advocate, and the main accused in a case wherein a fake judgment of the High Court in connivance with others was prepared.
Deciding the bail application Justice Kuldip Singh observed “no purpose will be served to keep the petitioner in custody for indefinite period. All other accused have already been granted bail by the High Court.
The allegations of influencing the witnesses in case petitioner is released on bail, are vague and not supported by corroborative material, read the court order.
Before granting the conditional bail the accused was asked to furnish a surety and furnish a personal bond worth Rs 50,000.
Earlier the judge recorded that charge in the case had been framed on 21.2.2012 and other co-accused in the case Kuldeep Rao, Shivender Batish, Dinesh Kapoor Duni Chand Yadav and Udey Ram had been released on bail.
On behalf the state additional advocate general Ruma Kaushik had maintained that the allegations against Sood were distinct and should not be released on bail. The petitioner was represented by Sandeep Datta and Bhavana Datta.
The matter pertains to registering of a case and arrest of Kuldeep Rao on 24.5.2011 for producing a fake judgment that was not on the High Court’s record to obtain job benefit with public works department, where the accused is employed. Rao happens to a younger brother of former minister Rangila Ram Rao.
On Rao disclosing that the judgment was made available by Sood, the advocate was also arrested. However, the trail court four days later on 29.5.2011 granted bail to both of them.
With arrest of Batish, Kapoor and Yadav, the other accused in the case, on 3.6.2011, the High Court in a suo-motu action also cancelled the bail of Sood and Rao on 29.6.2011.
With the trail court granting bail to Batish, Kapoor, Yadav and Rao, in July 2011 the High Court again intervened and on its own motion again cancelled the bail of all four of them on 16.8.2011.
Investigations revealed that Batish, Kapoor, Yadav and Rao along with their daughters and 100 other people were accused in Pre-Medical Examination (CPMT) scam case registered in June, 2006.
With the CMPT case pending trial for long, the four developed a friendship and Kapoor met his friend Haresh Sood.
A conspiracy was hatched in a hotel restaurant, a fee was settled and partly paid to the lawyer and the fake judgment complete with seals of the High Court was delivered on 24.2.2011, a day before Rao submitted it to his department.
Investigations also brought Uday Ram, a clerk with Sood into the net as forensic experts attributed the handwriting on the judgment to be his.
With the charge in the fake judgment case framed on 25.2.2012, besides Sood the main accused, the other five co accused in the case were released on bail by the High Court in March 2012.
Before granting bail to the main accused in the case, Justice Kuldip Singh in his order today noted that the petitioner has a young wife and little baby to look after.
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.
