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Court grants bail to Raja Bhaiya

JABALPUR: The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday granted conditional bail to former Uttar Pradesh Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya in a POTA case.

A division bench of Justice Deepak Mishra and Justice Jitendra Maheshwari ordered that the POTA detenue be released on bail on furnishing a bond of Rs 10 lakhs and two other sureties of Rs 10 lakhs each in the lower court.

The High Court granted the bail on an appeal challenging Special POTA court Judge R C Mishra's November 29 order rejecting his bail application and ordering his detention in Jabalpur jail.

The court ordered Raja Bhaiya to deposit his passport in the Special POTA court, Jabalpur, and to report his presence at the Civil Lines police station here on the last Sunday of every month with an intimation to this effect to the POTA court also.

Other directive

The court directed that Raja Bhaiya visit Pratapgarh only in special circumstances, particularly for his presence in court in criminal cases. He was also ordered not to make any attempt to influence any witness of the case while on bail.

Petitioner's counsel Sushil Kumar informed that POTA cases were registered against Raja Bhaiya, his brother Akshay Pratap Singh, MP, and father Uday Pratap Singh in January, 2003 and Akshay Pratap Singh was granted bail by a Kanpur court.

Political rivalry

The petitioner contended that they were framed in the POTA case due to the political rivalry with the then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.

After Mulayam Singh Yadav came to power in Uttar Pradesh, the POTA case against Raja Bhaiya and others were withdrawn in April, 2005. But it was challenged by a witness, Awadhesh Shukla, in the Supreme Court through a public interest litigation.

The Apex court set aside the Uttar Pradesh Government order regarding withdrawal of the case and then transferred the case to Madhya Pradesh. UNI

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Court grants bail to Raja Bhaiya

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