SC gives ‘absolute’ protection from arrest to BIS Chahal in disproportionate assets case

The Supreme Court on Friday gave an absolute protection from arrest to Bharat Inder Singh Chahal—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 media adviser to the Punjab Chief Minister from April 1, 2017, to August 31, 2021, and the disproportionate assets FIR was lodged against him on August 2, 2023 under various 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 pendency of his petition challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order dismissing his anticipatory bail application.

On Friday, the Bench made its interim order absolute and disposed of Chahal’s petition.

“Taking into consideration the facts and circumstances of the case and upon hearing the learned counsel for the parties, we consider appropriate to make order dated November 11, 2024, absolute, provided the petitioner extends all cooperation during the investigation and the trial,” a Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta said in its order.

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 as a “politically motivated” case, Chahal had contended that the high court’s October 4 order was based on “wholly untenable grounds” and was “replete with factual inaccuracies”.

Asserting that custodial interrogation of the accused was required to ascertain the source of the alleged assets and facilitate fair probe, the high court had on October 4 dismissed his anticipatory bail plea.

“The arrest of the petitioner is very much necessary to interrogate him for eliciting the actual source of disproportionate assets and to complete the investigation in a fair and transparent manner”, the high court had said.