Court grants bail to judge’s husband in graft case

A special court on Monday granted bail to the husband of a judicial officer, arrested in a graft case in which she was allegedly caught by CBI while accepting bribe, saying probe relating to him was complete and there was no chance of him tampering evidence.

Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal gave the relief to accused Alok Lakhanpal, who had sought bail on the ground of parity with his wife Rachna Tiwari Lakhanpal who was a senior civil judge at the Tis Hazari Court here. The court also granted bail to co-accused and an advocate Vishal Mehan and asked both of them to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of like amount. It also directed Alok, a practicing lawyer, and Vishal to surrender their passport with the court and not to leave the country without its prior permission. Both of them were in judicial custody. 

“They will contact any of the witnesses and will cooperate in the investigations,” the court said. Their bail pleas were opposed by CBI on the ground that they were directly involved in the conspiracy as well as actual trap consisting of demand, acceptance and recovery. The court had earlier granted bail to Rachna Tiwari Lakhanpal, who was suspended after her arrest, considering that there was nobody to look after her two minor kids as her husband was also under incarceration.