SRINAGAR: A court here has granted interim bail to a man accused of duping MBBS aspirants of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of arranging medical seats for them in private colleges over the past 15 years.
After hearing prosecution and defence counsel Advocate Aamir Masoodi, First Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Kumar Gupta granted bail to Uttar Pradesh resident Sheel Kumar Shukla.
“Considering the law and keeping in view the facts of the present case and further that the accused in custody for the past 55 days and presently lodged in judicial custody, the apprehension of the prosecution as to the influencing of prosecution witnesses by the accused can be guarded by imposing suitable conditions but the bail cannot be withheld only on this count,” the court said.
The court observed that accused has carved out a case at this stage for granting bail in his favour.
“Therefore, application is allowed and the accused is granted interim bail till next date of hearing subject to the furnishing of bail bonds by the surety and personal binds to the tune of Rs one lakh,” the court added as per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).
The court imposed certain conditions on the persons bailed out. The conditions include that the accused persons shall appear before the investigation officer (IO) and cooperate with IO as and when directed.
“The accused persons shall not induce witnesses or the prosecution directly or indirectly and shall not temper with the evidence of the prosecution. The accused persons shall not commit similar offences in near future,” the court said.
Shukla was wanted in a case registered at Budgam Police Station on July 8, 2007 following a complaint by Javeed Ahmad Shah of Anantnag district’s Mattan.
Shah alleged that Ajay Jaiswal, who was running a branch of V V C Academy-New Delhi at Jawahar Nagar, Srinagar, had promised to get his daughter admitted to a medical college in Gwalior in return of Rs 10 lakh.
The complainant said he sold his land and paid Jaiswal Rs 3 lakh in cash on September 26, 2007 and another instalment of Rs 5 lakh through cheque but neither his daughter got admission to MBBS nor was the money returned to him.
As part of investigation in the case, Jaiswal was arrested on December 8, 2007. He revealed he was just an agent of the academy, and Shukla, as its chairman, was sending people to him and taking money.
As per prosecution, Shukla had opened a college called ‘Wisdom Institute of Special Studies’ at Ghaziabad after changing the name of V V C Academy, and accordingly, a warrant was obtained from the court and the accused was arrested.(KNO)
