IAS officer Ashok Singhvi granted bail in mining scam case

Justice Nirmaljeet Kaur granted bail to Singhvi and two other officials of the mining department -Pankaj Gehlot and PR Ameta, besides middle man Sanjay Sethi, allegedly Singhvi’s closest confidant and partner in crime.

While Advocate General Pushpendra Singh Bhati opposed the bail saying the investigation wasn’t over, the lawyers for the accused argued that their clients had been in judicial custody for seven months, with a lot of investigation still pending.

Former CM Ashok Gehlot, however, blamed the state government for going easy on countering the bail plea.

“Had the scam been handed over to CBI, this would not have happened. This officer was a favourite of the chief minister. His bail plea wasn’t opposed properly,” Ashok Gehlot told The Indian Express.

“The BJP government has gone out of its way to cover up scams. Even with the Rs 45,000 crore scam, for which the Congress submitted documents to the CVC and the CAG, the state government just gave the probe to Lokayukta which is just putting it into cold storage,” he said.