Chandigarh: HC grants bail to four accused in Haryana judiciary paper leak scam

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday granted bail to four accused, including then registrar (Recruitment) Balwinder Kumar Sharma and three others, allegedly involved in the leakage of Haryana judicial services examination.
A full bench headed by Chief Justice Krishan Murari passed these orders while allowing the bail petitions filed by these accused.

All these accused are presently lodged in Burail jail Chandigarh.

Those who have been granted bail include Balwinder Sharma, Sunil Chopra, Sunita and Sushila.

While granting them bail, the HC has made it clear that the accused shall not tamper with the evidence and would not try to influence the witnesses related to this case. All the accused have also been told to deposit their passports.

In his bail plea, Balwinder Kumar Sharma had claimed before the high court that no question paper was leaked in actual. It was further asserted by the suspended judicial officer that all allegations against him are based merely on the disclosure statements of other accused.

The officer had also submitted before the HC that there is no recovery of leaked question paper or any amount that alleged to have been paid for leakage of the question paper.

Strongly objecting to Balwinder’s bail plea, UT Chandigarh had submitted that he has tarnished the image and reputation of prestigious examination, thus bail should not be granted to him. UT counsel also informed the court about exchange of more than 1100 phone calls with a woman who was also one of the candidate and an accused in this case. The duration of the calls, according to UT, were from 15 to 45 minutes and from the date.

Meanwhile, other accused including Sunita, Sushila and Sunil Chopra alias Titu had pleaded for bail citing prolong incarnation and possibility of delay in completion of trial.

An internal probe conducted by the HC had found the Registrar (recruitment) Balwinder Kumar Sharma responsible for leakage of paper to one of the candidates, Sunita. Later the case was registered and SIT was constituted to probe the matter. As of now, the SIT has arrested several person including Balwinder Kumar Sharma in relation to the case. The trial of the case is pending before the district court Chandigarh.