Bandi Sanjay gets bail after long argument, likely to be released on Friday

The magistrate, who heard arguments for almost eight hours, granted the conditional bail and asked Bandi Sanjay, the prime accused in the Warangal question paper leak case, to furnish sureties of Rs 20,000

Hyderabad: After perhaps what could be one of the longest arguments over a bail petition in recent times, BJP State president Bandi Sanjay was granted a conditional bail by the Hanamkonda magistrate court late on Thursday night.

The magistrate, who heard arguments for almost eight hours, granted the conditional bail and asked Sanjay, the prime accused in the Warangal question paper leak case, to furnish sureties of Rs 20,000. When reports last came in, the defence lawyers were waiting for the bail orders, which could be produced before jail authorities in Karimnagar on Friday for the BJP leader’s release.

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Earlier, the court posted the police application seeking custody of Sanjay to Monday.

Monday will also see the High Court taking up Sanjay’s quash petition for hearing. On Thursday, Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan issued a notice to the State police to respond to a writ petition filed by Sanjay seeking to quash the Magistrate court’s order remanding him in judicial custody and at the same time, said Sanjay was free to file a bail application even by moving a house motion if required. The petition on the remand order would be heard in detail on Monday.

Sanjay’s counsel counsel N Ramchander Rao argued that the magistrate failed to see whether there was a violation of Section 41-A of the Criminal Procedure Code and the guidelines framed by the Supreme Court in the Arnesh Kumar Vs State of Bihar.

He also argued that the magistrate wrongly came to the conclusion that the petitioner would tamper with the evidence if he was let outside. The remand was ‘bad in law’ and the magistrate ‘had not applied mind correctly’, he alleged.

According to the police, Sanjay was arraigned as the prime accused based on the confessional statement of Accused No.2, a former television journalist and presently an active member of NaMo, a front organisation of the BJP. Denying the charges made by the police, Sanjay’s counsel alleged that false cases were lodged against him to tarnish the image of the BJP and to stop him from attending Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting during his visit to Hyderabad on April 8.