Former Maharashtra minister Suresh Jain, arrested in connection with the 2006 Gharkul Housing Scheme scam, was today granted bail by the Supreme Court.
A bench of Justices S A Bobde and Ashok Bhushan granted bail to Jain, a minister for housing during the Shiv Sena-BJP rule in the 1990s, after considering that he had served more than four and half years in jail.
Maharashtra government counsel Nishant Katneshwar opposed the bail application of Jain.
The bench, however, granted the relief to him after considering that all material witnesses in the case have been examined.
Jain was arrested in March 2012 for allegedly favouring a builder and indulging in irregularities to the tune of Rs 29 crore.
He had allegedly favoured a firm that was given a contract for constructing tenements under the Gharkul housing scheme in the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra.
Former municipal commissioner of Jalgaon Pravin Gedam had registered a complaint in this connection in 2006.
( Source – PTI )
D Thorat
The fact that in spite of several attempts earlier, bail was denied by the courts proves beyond doubt that the accused was, beyond any reasonable doubt, guilty of the charges. Logically, therefore, the court should complete the hearings soonest and punish the accused. What will happen if the punishment is imprisonment for less than 54 months, or he is fully acquitted, which is not now unlikely? Will there be any compensation payable to the accused? In any case, this high profile case needs to be decided quickly since so much time has already lapsed.