The Allahabad High Court Tuesday cancelled the bail of two accused, including former BSP MLA R P Jaiswal, in the alleged multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam case. The accused were granted bail on December 5, last year, but the orders were not executed as the CBI had filed a bail cancellation application in the matter. A Division bench, led by Chief Justice, had then suspended the bail order on December 13 and entrusted the entire matter to bench, led by Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi.

The same bench Tuesday allowed the bail cancellation plea filed by the CBI, as a result of which the bail orders of December 5 pertaining to the accused, Jaiswal, who was MLA from Barhaj in Deoria, and Dinesh Kumar Singh, a government servant — were cancelled. The court said: “The bail orders proceeded on irrelevant considerations and, therefore, they deserve to be cancelled. The accused shall not be released and remain in custody until ordered by a court.

” Considering arguments on behalf of the accused, the court rejected their contentions that the December 5 bail order was issued as a matter of routine. The court also rejected their contention that, for the purposes of bail cancellation, the accused had to be physically released from jail and taken back in custody, which was not the case in the present matter. The court pointed out that the single judge bench, which passed the bail order on December 5 was not authorised to hear the matter, as only one bail application was entrusted to the said court, while it passed order in three bail matters pertaining to the two accused.

Further, the court said that the fact that the accused had filed correction applications with respect to the bail order ‘because certain substantive sections under which they were accused were not mentioned’ showed that, for all practical purposes, they had been released. Therefore, it could not be contended now that the bail cancellation application filed by the CBI was not maintainable. Earlier, on December 5, a single judge bench of Justice Jayashree Tiwari had granted bail to Jaiswal and Singh on grounds of ill health and other co-accused being granted bail previously.

Jaiswal had been accused of helping unqualified suppliers to get orders for drugs supply, while Singh was accused of raising false bills in the name of supplying materials under the NRHM scheme. .

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