A court here today granted bail to all the six accused retired judges in the Rs. 6.58-crore Provident Fund scam. CBI Special Judge A K Singh granted bail to the accused on the basis of undertakings and personal bonds of Rs. 1 lakh each. The hearing went on for five hours in a closed court room.
Judge Singh followed the direction of the Allahabad High Court issued in favour of former district judge R S Chaubey which allowed to hear the bail the same day and also to release him without verification of sureties.
The judge first granted bail to Chaubey on the basis of arguments by his counsels Ajay Chaudhry and Sanjay Tyagi.
The court also granted bail to the five other accused judges including three former high court judges — justices R P Yadav, R N Mishra and A K Singh — and district and session judges R P Mishra and Arun Kumar.
The next date of hearing was fixed for March 31. The undertakings will be submitted in court tomorrow.
The CBI had filed a charge sheet against 78 people in the case involving alleged fraudulent withdrawal of crores of rupees, between 2001 and 2008, from Provident Funds of employees posted at Ghaziabad district court.
All the six judges are charged under IPC sections 420, 468, 471 and 120 b along with other offences.
