SC grants bail to BSP MP for filing nomination papers

The Supreme Court today granted temporary bail to BSP MP Dhananjay Singh, who along with his wife Jagriti Singh is accused of killing their maid, to file nomination from Jaunpur Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.

A bench headed by Justice B S Chauhan granted temporary bail to Singh from April 14 to 21 for filing papers and subsequent campaigning in the constituency.

Singh, who is also an accused in a rape case, is a sitting MP from Jaunpur constituency in UP and had sought bail to file his nomination from that seat.

Polls would be held in Jaunpur Lok Sabha seat on May 12.

The BSP MP moved the apex court after the Delhi High Court on March 31 stayed the interim bail granted to him by a lower court on March 22.

The trial court had granted him interim bail on his plea that he has to look after his ailing father and as the charge sheet has already been filed, no useful purpose would be served by keeping him in custody.

Dhananjay was chargesheeted for various offences under the IPC, including for alleged destruction of evidence and abetment of the offences of murder and attempt to murder.

Jagriti has been chargesheeted for offences under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 344 (wrongfully confining for 10 or more days), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the IPC.

The couple was arrested on November 5 last year in connection with the death of their 35-year-old maid Rakhi Bhadra, a resident of West Bengal.

Dhananjay and Jagriti, a dental surgeon at a government hospital here, are in judicial custody.

The police, in its charge sheet, had alleged that Jagriti used to "mercilessly beat" her three domestic helps and had "compelled" them to work by holding them captive.

Rakhi's body, with injury marks on her legs, chest and arms, was recovered from Dhananjay's South Avenue residence on the evening of November 4, 2013. Earlier, police had chargesheeted Dhananjay in a separate case for allegedly raping repeatedly a 42-year-old railway employee for nearly four years.

His bail plea in the rape case is yet to be decided by the trial court.

In the rape case, the alleged victim recently deposed in a trial court here and said that she was not raped by the MP and her statement was recorded wrongly by the police. Singh has now moved a bail plea in the rape case as well in the trial court.