MLA Arora’s aide Makhija gets bail

More than two months since his arrest by the Vigilance Bureau, the court of Special Judge Jaswinder Singh on Friday granted bail to Mahesh Makhija, an aide of Jalandhar Central Aam Aadmi Party MLA Raman Arora.

Makhija is a commission agent in the main vegetable market at Maqsudan. A resident of the Charanjitpura locality here, he was arrested on May 30, a week after the arrest of Arora on the charge of corruption.

Lawyer for Makhija Mandeep Sachdev argued in the court today that Rs 29 lakh shown to have been recovered as ill-gotten money was Makhija’s personal amount. He also pleaded that he was made to sign on several blank papers, which were later converted as his disclosure statements. He maintained that there was nothing on record against Makhija other than the statements and no witness had stated if he had sought any bribe amount.

The prosecution, however, had made a case that he was seeking bribe from the public at Police Station Division No. 2 for getting their work done and that he was purchasing benami properties from the amount collected, for which no witness or proof was placed on record.

The court granted him bail observing that there was no point in keeping him in custody for an indefinite period as the trial would take a long time. He was asked to deposit Rs 1 lakh as surety and made to give undertaking that he shall appear in the court in every hearing and shall not leave the country without the court’s prior permission.