JOIN USSocial activist T J Abraham, who was arrested in connection with a 12-year-old assault case, was granted bail by the 11th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court here on Friday.
Abraham was asked to pay a surety of Rs 8,000 and the matter was posted to December 5. Abraham’s counsel K V Dhananjay argued that the arrest was illegal and politically motivated.
“There is a world of difference between being absent and absconding. Absconding means actively concealing oneself from the police. Abraham did not conceal himself from the police and the record merely speaks of his absence from court proceedings,” he argued.
The argument that police traced him last week was ridiculous as Abraham had been in the news for the last six months and was seen regularly in public and he had appeared in the Lokayukta court over a four-month period, argued Dhananjay.
Abraham is scheduled to submit his objections to High Court on the petitions by NICE and Nandi Economic Corridor Enterprise (NECE), which challenged the decision of the Special Lokayukta Court to hand over a probe to Lokayukta police about the irregularities and large scale land acquisition in the execution of the Bangalore-Mysore corridor.
The complaint filed by Abraham has former prime minister Deve Gowda, former chief ministers S M Krishna and B S Yeddyurappa as accused.
NICEL clarifies
Meanwhile, the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited (NICEL) has denied that any of their employee was involved in distribution of any material pertaining to an old case involving Abraham, on Mayo Hall premises.
“We had nothing to do with the present situation. Since the alleged crime committed by Abraham is supposed to have taken place in 2001 and we learnt about his arrest only through the media in the afternoon,” a representative of NICEL said.
The representative also said that any delay in the proceedings in the High Court would only hurt them and impede their project and they would not benefit from it.