Job fraud: Chandigarh ex-Mayor’s kin granted interim pre-arrest bail

A local court has granted interim anticipatory bail to Rahul Chanaliya, brother-in-law of former city Mayor Kuldeep Kumar, in a case of job fraud.

The police had registered the case on January 29 this year under Sections 61, 319 and 351 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act following a complaint of Ravi Kumar, a resident of Ram Darbar.

The complaint was submitted against Kuldeep Kumar and Rahul at the SSP public window at the police headquarters in Sector 9. The complainant alleged that the accused took Rs 75,000 from him on the promise of securing a job, but failed to honour the commitment. He alleged that Rahul also threatened him of severe consequences.

AS Gujral, the counsel for the accused Rahul, while arguing for bail, claimed that the FIR was registered due to political reasons. He said the FIR was registered a day before elections for the city’s new Mayor in a hurry and without any initial investigation or verification of the facts.

He said the complainant and the accused had good terms and due to the cordial relationship, the complainant transferred the amount on different dates in the account of the petitioner as friendly loans. Gujral argued that the in order to defame the former Mayor, who belonged to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the accused was falsely implicated in the case.

However, the prosecution opposed the bail application. The public prosecutor said the complainant had alleged that the accused duped him of Rs 75,000 on the pretext of getting him a sweeper’s job. He said the accused was an influential person and if he got the bail, he would tamper with the evidence.

After hearing of the arguments, the court granted the interim anticipatory bail to the accused. The court has listed the next hearing of the case for March 12.