India, July 23 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed two separate pleas of the Enforcement Directorate and the Chhattisgarh government challenging the bail granted to Chaitanya Baghel, son of former chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel, in alleged liquor scam cases. While dismissing the pleas of probe agencies against grant of bail to Baghel, the top court flagged the growing practice of routinely challenging bail orders and said it has led to a "significant expansion of bail jurisprudence, prompting the court to examine whether a legally flawed bail order, by itself, is sufficient to justify cancellation of an accused's liberty".
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, however, expunged the adverse remarks made by the Chhattisgarh High Court against the Economic Offence wing of the state police probe while granting bail to Baghel. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the EOW wing of the police have filed separate pleas challenging the bail granted by the high court in the case and a related money laundering matter. While the state government alleged that Chaitanya Baghel was one of the prime accused and masterminds in the sensational case, his counsel had argued that the high court delivered a well-considered judgement in the case in which the probe was ongoing for the last two years. On January 2, the high court granted bail to Chaitanya Baghel in two cases linked to the alleged liquor scam. The single bench of Justice Arvind Kumar Verma allowed Chaitanya Baghel's bail pleas in a case lodged by the ED and another by the Chhattisgarh Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)/EOW.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.