Haryana's local court granted bails to two senior IAS officers – Vijay Singh Dahiya and Jaibir Singh Arya —who were arrested by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in two separate bribery cases.
Dahiya, a 2001 batch IAS was posted as the commissioner and secretary of the Haryana skill development department in Panchkula He was booked on April 20 after the arrest of a woman Poonam Chopra. The case is related to payment of a bill of Rs 50 lakh. One Rinku Manchanda had complained to ACB that Poonam Chopra was asking for bribe of Rs 5 lakh to clear the bill from Vijay Dahiya and and Haryana Skill Development Mission's Chief Skills Officer (CSO) Deepak Sharma.
After the complaint, the ACB had arrested Poonam Chopra, while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 3 lakh on April 20. Apart from Poonam, the ACB had registered an FIR against Vijay Dahiya.
Argument that won the bail
In the court, Dahiya's counsel SPS Parmar argued: “The name of the applicant has been illegally included as accused despite the fact that there was neither any evidence of demand of bribe nor any acceptance of bribe. No preliminary inquiry was made to ascertain the facts before registration of FIR as decided by Supreme Court in Lalita Kumari case.”
The court of additional district and sessions judge Praveen Kumar allowed the bail plea.
IAS Jaibir Singh Arya too gets bail
Jabir Singh Arya, a 2019 batch officer, promoted from state service was serving as the managing director of Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC) when ACB anrested him last month under charges of seeking a bribe for sanctioning a transfer.
The Case:
As per the FIR, the complainant, Rajesh Kumar of Kurukshetra, told the ACB that HSWC Panipat district manager Sandeep Ganghas had approached him with an offer to pay then MD, Jaibir Arya, Rs 3 lakh to get his wife, Rinku Hooda, posted as Kurukshetra district manager.
Her posting orders for Kurukshetra were issued by Arya on October 5 and she joined on October 6, the FIR said.
Thereafter, Ghanghas told the complainant to pay the bribe money to Rajesh Bansal who allegedly acted as Arya's middleman.
The ACB sleuths arrested the middleman while accepting ₹3 lakh bribe and Arya was arrested for demanding the bribe.
The Argument:
In the court Arya's counsel also SPS Parmar, argued that a frivolous complaint had been marked.
“The complainant party was not happy with the action of applicant/ accused declining the leave application for further 1 and ½ years and only for this reason, a false complaint was moved with the ulterior motive of falsely implicating him in the present case,” Parmar said.
The court of additional sessions judge allowed the bail plea moved by Arya.
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