A Judicial Magistrate in Puducherry is likely to face vigilance inquiry for granting bail en masse to all the accused in a lottery scam.
Justice P.N. Prakash directed the High Court Registry to place the issue before the Chief Justice S.K. Kaul to decide the desirability of ordering a vigilance inquiry into the manner in which all the accused in the case were granted bail by the in-charge Magistrate when the Magistrate hearing the case was on leave.
The judge passed the direction while upholding the order passed by the Principal Sessions Judge, Puducherry, cancelling the bail granted by the magistrate and dismissing the plea moved by the accused.
The petitioner Ravikumar and other accused were arrested for allegedly printing lottery tickets of other States and selling them. They were remanded to judicial custody. Ravikumar, the third accused, moved the Judicial Magistrate I, Puducherry for bail twice but the petitions were dismissed.
On August 3, when the Judicial Magistrate I was on leave, the petitioner moved a bail application for the third time. The in-charge Judicial Magistrate II took up the application for hearing and granted bail to all the accused despite the objections raised by the police.
He had granted bail to accused in connection with lottery scam when the magistrate hearing case was on leave
