Supreme Court gives Capt Amarinder aide Chahal total protection from arrest in assets case

The Supreme Court today gave absolute protection from arrest to Bharat Inder Singh Chahal, a former media adviser to the then Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, in a case lodged against him for allegedly having assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

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Chahal served as the media adviser to the former Punjab Chief Minister from April 1, 2017, to August 31, 2021. The disproportionate assets FIR was lodged against him on August 2, 2023, under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act within two years of his demitting the office.

The top court had on November 11, 2024, passed an interim order protecting Chahal (76) from arrest till the pendency of his petition challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order dismissing his anticipatory bail application.

Today, the Bench made its interim order absolute and disposed of Chahal’s petition. “We consider appropriate to make the order dated November 11, 2024, absolute, provided the petitioner cooperates during investigation and trial,” a Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta said.

The order came after senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi and Siddharth Luthra submitted that Chahal was suffering from various ailments and that he was ready to cooperate with the investigation.

Terming it a “politically motivated” case, Chahal had contended that the HC’s October 4 order was based on “wholly untenable grounds”.

Asserting that custodial interrogation was required to ascertain the source of the alleged assets, the HC had on October 4 dismissed his anticipatory bail plea.