Tamil Nadu: Suspended Accountant-General granted bail in bribery case

CHENNAI: The HC on Monday granted bail to Arun Goyal, the suspended Accountant-General of Tamil Nadu, and three others who  were arrested on the charge of accepting bribe on March 23. Justice A D Jagadish Chandra granted the relief to Goyal, senior accounts officer S M R Gajendran and two others —  S Sivalingam and L S Raja — on the condition that they should execute a personal bond for `10,000 each with two sureties each for a like sum and appear before the CBI sleuths daily at 10.30 am until further orders.

According to prosecution, Goyal and Gajendran had demanded `5.5 lakh as bribe for posting Sivalingam as the Divisional Accountant in the PWD in Villupuram district, a post that comes under the purview of the TN Accountant General. Raja, a PWD employee who had acquaintance with Gajendran, facilitated the posting. The accused were remanded in judicial custody on March 23 for offences under Sections 120-B of the IPC, read with 7, 12 and 13 (2) and 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Goyal’s counsel Nirmal Kumar submitted that petitioner has been falsely implicated and arrested just on the incriminating statement made by other accused Gajendran. To spoil the goodwill and hard-earned reputation and to cause serious damage to his reputation, the petitioner has been falsely roped into the case just to wreck their personal vengeance against him, Kumar added.