Amar Singh gets interim bail on health grounds

A court of special judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal granted him bail up to September 19,the day on which his regular bail plea is slated to be heard. Singh will be required to pay a personal and surety bond of Rs 2 lakh each and submit his passport. This would mean that he wont be allowed to travel to Singapores Mt Elizabeth Hospital where he had his kidney transplant in 2009.

In her judgment Dhingra noted that from the report submitted by AIIMS it appeared that the health of the accused is fluctuating and perhaps this necessitated his being shifted from Tihar jail. The accused,who is a Rajya Sabha member, cannot be shown extra indulgence,but he must not also be subjected to undue harshness as the humane angle can never be lost sight of by the courts of equity,justice and good conscience, she said. She further ordered that the director of AIIMS should submit a comprehensive report based on day-to-day health status of Singh on September 19 and also inform the court immediately if Singh is discharged.

The court reserved orders briefly on Thursday after hearing arguments by Singhs lawyer Hariharan and opposing counsel. Hariharan sought interim bail referring to the AIIMS medical report submitted on Wednesday and pleaded that his client should not be treated differently because he was Amar Singh. He is not trying to escape the process. He had come to court in answer to your summons despite his health condition. It is his legal right to be granted interim bail as he is sick and infirm, he argued.

The two page medical report submitted by AIIMS had stated that Singh had multiple health problems which required immediate special care.

Hariharan suggested that the situation could have been averted if the court had heeded his arguments earlier. The jail authorities have played down his medical condition. They said that his parameters were slightly above normal when,in fact,they were dangerously above normal for a person with one kidney which is a transplanted one. Because of this,nine days have been wasted, he argued.