INDORE: The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court granted bail to the principal of Delhi Public School (DPS), who was arrested after the January 5 school bus accident that left four students dead.“The applicant certainly is a responsible person holding the post of principal in a prestigious school and the case diary, prima facie, does not reveal his direct involvement in respect to the incident in question,” justice SC Sharma said, granting Sudarshan Sonar bail on a bond of Rs 50,000.Sonar walked out of prison around 8pm on Wednesday. His wife, family members and DPS staff were waiting for him outside the prison. Sonar's original remand was till February 22.The bail plea was moved at 10.30am along with an application for same-day hearing.“The matter was listed before the single bench at 1.30pm and the records of the case were summoned. We had prayed for time to call for the case diary and file a reply to the bail application,” government advocate Kamal Tiwari said.However, Sonar’s counsel argued for hearing of the case on the same day. The matter was taken up post-lunch, when Lasudia police station in-charge Rajendra Soni appeared in court with the case diary.Sonar’s counsel Ravindra Singh Chhabra argued that by no stretch of imagination could the school principal be held responsible for the accident. He challenged Sonar’s arrest, demanding to know under which IPC section he was taken into custody. The court asked the government to specify under which charge the arrest was made.Soni said on record that the principal was arrested under Section 188 of IPC — disobeying orders promulgated by a public servant. The principal had violated an order passed by the district collector regarding safety of school buses, police said.“We argued that the arrest was illegal since arrest warrant under section 188 can be issued only by a judicial magistrate,” Chhabra said.The police station in-charge said that no private complaint had been made by the district magistrate in the matter. Based on these arguments, Sonar was granted bail.

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