Dismissed HCS officer seeks bail from PMLA court

Anil Nagar, a dismissed officer from Haryana Civil Services (HCS) and the ex-deputy secretary of the HPSC, who is the primary suspect in a recruitment scam, has submitted a request for standard bail to the specialized PMLA court.

Nagar surrendered before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) court last week and is currently lodged in Ambala jail. Nagar is accused of allegedly taking bribe to manipulate marks of candidates who appeared in the dental surgeon written exam conducted by the HPSC.

Special PMLA court judge Rajeev Goyal has fixed January 8 as the next date of hearing on his bail application, issuing notice to the ED for filing of reply. The defense counsel has argued that his client was not required for any kind of investigation in custody. “There is nothing to be recovered from him as the case registered by the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) is also pending for trial after filing of charge-sheet,” the counsel said.

Two other accused, Naveen Kumar, an associate of Nagar, and Pankaj Gupta, the controller of examinations have already been given interim bail by the court.
A Delhi court has granted bail to Rajesh aka Honey, a man accused under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The court stated that there was no record suggesting that Rajesh was likely to commit any offence while on bail.

It noted that there had been no criminal complaints against him in the last six years. The court allowed the bail application on certain conditions, including surrendering the accused’s passport and not leaving the national capital region.The Supreme Court has requested a reply from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection to the bail petition of Hany Babu, a former professor at Delhi University. Babu has been held in custody since 2020 as part of the Elgar Parishad case.

The NIA has been granted a three-week period to address his plea.
Babu approached the Supreme Court after his bail plea was rejected by the Bombay High Court. He was arrested on charges of being a member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), but he argues that there is no evidence to support this claim.

Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji has filed his third bail application under the PMLA Act, after being arrested by the ED on money-laundering charges. The special court has previously rejected his bail twice, while the Madras high court and the Supreme Court denied him bail once on medical grounds.

The court session has been postponed until January 8, allowing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) time to submit their response. The Madras High Court had earlier declined his bail request, citing worries regarding evidence tampering, his health status, and his brother’s evasion.