After denying bail for five times, the Gauhati High Court today granted bail to former Arunachal chief minister Gegong Aapang in the multi-crore PDS scam. The court took up the bail petition for hearing on Thursday.
Much to the relief of former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang, a Division Bench of Gauhati High Court comprising Justice IA Ansari and Justice AC Upadhyay on Friday granted eight weeks’ bail to Apang, who is now in judicial custody in connection with the Rs 1000 crore PDS scam. The bench had taken up the bail petition of Apang on Thursday. Apang was arrested by the Special Investigation Cell of Arunachal Pradesh Police in connection with a Rs 1000 crore Public Distribution System scam. Apang;s lawyers understood to have argued that the case was based on documentary evidences which are in the custody of the police as such there is no need for keeping Apang in custody any longer.
The SIC SP M. Chauhan personally appeared and made submission before the court. However, no order of release was passed by the Court. The Special Investigation Cell arrested Gegong Apang from Itanagar on August 24 last. The scam that had taken place when Gegong Apang was the chief minister, involved embezzlement of money to the tune of about Rs 1000 crore in form of payment on Hill Transport Subsidy and Road Transport Charges on the basis of fake bills submitted through the Food Corporation of India. Apang was booked under several sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act. Apang termed his arrest as a political conspiracy. The SIC in October 2008 had submitted a list of 40 persons to the Gauhati High Court as accused. In the charge sheet, Assam MLA Kartik Sena Sinha had also figured.. The SIC was formed at the instruction of Gauhati High Court after it had taken up a Public Interest Litigation filed by Bamang Anthony, president of Arunachal Citizens’ Right who sought High Court intervention after he had scented certain anomalies in the state’s PDS. The Gauhati High Court which ordered constitution of the SIC to probe into the scandal, has been monitoring the investigation on regular basis.
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