Court reserves order on Janjua’s bail plea

He was arrested in a corruption case registered against him by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) in Mohali on November 9.

Janjua’s counsels A S Sukhija and Rajneesh Sharma strongly pleaded for the release of the 1989-batch bureaucrat on bail while giving an undertaking that he would not run away,temper with the records,threaten his subordinates and witnesses in the case and would join the investigations as and when required.

Sukhija argued that since the presentation of challan would take time,no purpose would be solved to keep Janjua in custody till then.

“Being a senior bureaucrat,he is a responsible person and would comply with all the conditions imposed on the grant of bail,” said Sukhija,while averring that since Janjua was already placed under suspension,there could be no apprehensions of his tempering with the official records or threatening subordinates and witnesses.

Opposing the bail plea,public prosecutor Vijay Kumar Singla accused Janjua of “mounting pressure” on the complainant in the case. “Since his wife is a senior income tax officer,the complainant has received three notices from the Income Tax department since Janjua’s arrest,” submitted Singla,while arguing that Janjua had “already started violating the conditions of bail while in custody”.

Asking to keep Janjua in custody till completion of investigation and presentation of challan,the public prosecutor averred that granting bail would send a wrong message to the public. “It was first case of senior IAS officer caught taking bribe in Punjab and giving him no benefit would help weed out corruption from the higher ranks of the administration,” argued Singla.

After hearing the arguments,the Special Judge S K Garg fixed Wednesday for pronouncing the order on bail application filed under Section 439 of the CrPC.

Janjua,who could not appear before the Special court here on November 26 after expiry of his previous 14-day judicial remand due to ill health,today appeared before the court in compliance with the production warrant. His judicial remand,meanwhile,was extended till December 9.

Janjua,as Secretary-cum-Director,Industries and Commerce,Punjab,was arrested by the VB from his Chandigarh office on November 9 while allegedly accepting Rs 2 lakh as a bribe from a Ludhiana-based industrialist with a promise to allot him a vacant plot.

In the plea,Janjua had claimed himself as a victim of “bullfight” and had accused VB of “conniving with the complainant to frame him in a false case knowing well that neither any money was demanded nor it was given to him and the alleged recovery was a planted one”.