By Amiya Kumar Kushwaha
New Delhi, May 31 (IANS): A CBI court here has granted three-day interim bail to an undertrial lodged in Tihar jail for appearing in Delhi University's law entrance test. The court observed that the undertrial could "not be debarred from the opportunity of getting enrolled in a law course".
"Keeping in view the submissions, I am of the opinion that since the applicant/accused (Nirvikar Singh) wants to pursue further study, he cannot be debarred from the opportunity of getting enrolled in law course, if he so wishes," Central Bureau of Investigation Special Judge Gurdeep Singh said while allowing his plea for interim bail.
Nirvikar Singh, who wished to appear in the entrance test of the Faculty of Law, Delhi University, was granted interim bail from June 5 to June 7.
The court asked him to furnish a personal bond of Rs.1 lakh and one surety of the like amount.
Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey, appearing for Nirvikar Singh, submitted that there was no apprehension that he would interfere with investigations or tamper with evidence in any manner.
However, CBI prosecutor K.P. Singh opposed the plea, stating that in case the applicant wanted to appear in the entrance exam, he could be allowed to do so in judicial custody.
The prosecutor said that the accused was an influential person and might tamper with the evidence.
Nirvikar Singh, a former aide-de-camp (ADC) of a Punjab governor, was arrested on May 13 while accepting bribe from one person, Bhupinder Singh.
Nirvikar Singh had allegedly told Bhupinder that he could settle an ongoing case against him by using contacts with a senior investigating officer.
Bhupinder thus agreed to pay Rs.30 lakh to Nirvikar in two installments of Rs.15 lakh each.
Nirvikar was earlier too been granted bail by court from May 22 to May 24 for appearing in the law entrance test of Lloyd Law College, Greater Noida. After the test, he surrendered before the jail superintendent.
There are similar instances where accused have got relief from various courts to pursue their studies.
The Delhi High Court on December 8, 2014, granted three-day parole to former Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) S.S. Rathi -- serving a life term along with nine other policemen for killing two businessmen in New Delhi after mistaking them to be gangsters in 1997 -- to submit a thesis for his M.A. first year examination.
On June 21, 2013, a local court allowed December 16 Delhi gangrape accused Vinay Sharma to write his B.A. first year exam in Tihar Jail.