Court grants relaxation in Bapat's anticipatory bail

Mumbai, May 31 (UNI) A special court today granted relaxation to former Mumbai police Commissioner Shreekant Bapat on the conditional anticipatory bail granted to him in connection with the 1999 MPSC scam.

Mr Bapat had moved a miscellaneous application before the special Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB court Judge P N Deshmukh on May 29 seeking direction to grant relaxation in his conditional bail.

In the application, Mr Bapat said that while granting the anticipatory bail on April 19 this year, the court directed him to present himself before the investigating officers of ACB for a period of two weeks and not to leave the jurisdiction of this court until further orders.

He submitted he had regularly attended the ACB office as per court directive and remained in the jurisdiction of the court.

He said in order to meet some urgent business meetings as well to the social work, he prayed the court to provide him relaxation and allow him to leave the court jurisdiction.

Mr Bapat, who had been asked by the ACB of the Mumbai police to appear before them on March 27 to get his statement in the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) scam, instead, moved the bail application before the court fearing arrest.

The ACB required his statement in connection with the appointment of three lohar brothers, sons of Pune-based Additional DGP P T Lohar, as deputy superintendents of police during 1997-98 through unfair means by allegedly forging marksheets, while Mr Bapat was the exam controller with MPSC during that period.

They were dismissed in January this year after MPSC secretary Seema Dhamdhare lodged a supplementary complaint against them.

In all, 29 people, including former MPSC Chairman S D Karnik and former MPSC member and Hinduja college principal T Shivare have been arrested by the ACB in this case so far.

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