Punjab 2015 graft case: Court asks for surety of Rs 50 lakh from accused for going abroad

In his plea, Dahuja, who owns a dealership of Hyundai Motors India Limited at Chandigarh and Panchkula, had sought permission to visit Dubai from August 4 to August 6 and to visit Canada then from August 7 to August 15. Dahuja had pleaded that he planned to visit Dubai for three days and to visit Canada for six days to meet his son, who is presently studying at Edmonton (Canada). The period of his visit to countries includes the travelling time from Chandigarh to Dubai, Dubai to Canada and Canada to Chandigarh.

Advocate Rajan Malhotra, counsel of Dahuja, mentioned in the plea that earlier also Dahuja was granted permission to visit abroad during the pendency of trial by the CBI court as well as by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in April 2017, August 2017, January 2018, July 2018, November 2018, and January 2019.

Further Dahuja undertook to return back to India within the specified period of time and shall abide by the terms and conditions as may be imposed by the court.

After hearing to the plea and objections of Public Prosecutor of CBI for denying the application, the special court of ADJ Dr Sushil Kumar Garg observed, “…some stringent condition or heavy surety can be asked from the applicant and therefore, this court is of the opinion that earlier also applicant was permitted to visit abroad and he has not misused the concession. As such, he is again allowed to visit Dubai from 04.08.2019 to 06.08.2019 and Canada from 07.08.2019 to 15.08.2019, for the purpose explained above, with a direction to furnish surety bond in the sum of Rs.50.00 lacs.with an undertaking to return to India after specified period i.e. from 04.08.2019 to 16.08.2019 and to appear before this court on the next date of hearing…”