Gujarat: Morbi court rejects Congress MLA Parsottam Sabariya bail plea

He was remanded to police custody for a day on Monday, after which, since the police did not seek extension of his custody, the local court sent him to judicial custody Tuesday.

The same day, the MLA had approached the Morbi district and sessions court for bail. The court principal district and sessions judge, Rizwana Ghoghari had heard his bail plea on Friday but had reserved its order for a day. On Saturday, the court turned down Sabariya’s bail plea.

The decision has come days after the Gujarat High Court denied bail to four other accused in the case on November 1. The scam had come to light when the government received complaints of irregularities, following which, three teams were made for spot inspection. The teams inspected 46 randomly selected projects and concluded that the work shown on records had actually not been carried out.

Morbi irrigation department executive engineer Satish Upadhyay filed a police complaint on September 27, stating that the accused had submitted forged bills to claim payment from the government for repair and restoration of percolation tanks, check-dams and minor irrigation schemes.

Upadhyay had stated that there were irregularities in 46 out of 334 water bodies.

Upadhyay had named one CD Kanani, then the executive engineer in the department; Chaitanya Pandya, the proprietor of a Rajkot-based consultancy firm hired for assistance in the project; and contractors as accused. He had said that the corruption amounted to Rs 66.91 lakh.

Kanani and Pandya were arrested in September. Meanwhile, Bharat Rathod, president of a labourers’ cooperative society that was assigned the work, and Ganpat Rathod, who looked after the functioning of the cooperative society were arrested last month.

The accused had revealed that the Sabariya had demanded the bribe for not exposing the scam either at the local level or for not raising it in the Assembly.

According to police, Sabariya had accepted Rs 10 lakh from the accused through one Bharat Ganeshiya. He had also received a cheque as security for the balance Rs 25 lakh, police said.

Congress, however, has claimed that Sabariya has been dragged into the case to shield the BJP leaders involved in the irrigation scam.

The Gujarat High Court had on Thursday rejected bail plea of Kanani, Pandya, Bharat and Ganpat.