Supreme Court Grants Anticipatory Bail To Former Chhattisgarh Advocate General In NAN Corruption Case

The Supreme Court has granted anticipatory bail to former Chhattisgarh Advocate General (AG) Satish Chandra Verma in Nagrik Apurti Nigam (NAN) corruption case.

The two-Judge Bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta asked the said AG to cooperate in the investigation.

Senior Advocate Vivek Tankha and Advocate Sumeer Sodhi appeared for the AG while Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani appeared for the State.

The counsels for AG submitted that the Chhattisgarh High Court has wrongly concluded that there was a need for custodial interrogation. They contended that no offence whatsoever was made out on the basis of allegations. On the other hand, the counsel for the State Government opposed the anticipatory bail on the ground there was enough material against the law officer.

The Chhattisgarh Government had earlier told the Supreme Court that it would not take any coercive steps against AG in relation to the NAN corruption case. The allegations against AG in the FIR were that he helped NAN scam accused Anil Tuteja and Alok Shukla in getting bail in the case.

The said corruption case relates to the supply of low quality rice, grams, salt, etc., and several high profile persons, including bureaucrats, were arrested in the case.

Verma had challenged the Order of the High Court passed on February 13 this year, denying him anticipatory bail in the case registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code. The Trial Court had previously dismissed his anticipatory bail plea.

Accordingly, the Apex Court granted anticipatory bail to Verma.

With PTI Inputs