A Special court here on Monday granted bail to Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal in a case of alleged irregularities in recruitment at the commission.
Special Judge Hemani Malhotra granted her bail on a personal bond of ₹20,000 with one surety of a like amount, observing that the evidence in the matter was documentary and Ms. Maliwal was not required for custodial interrogation.
Taking cognisance of the chargesheet in the matter filed by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi government, Ms. Malhotra had on January 18 asked Ms. Maliwal to appear before the court on February 6.
Further probe
“After examining the FIR, statements of witnesses and documents, prima facie there is sufficient evidence to take cognisance of offences under Section 13(1)(d) and 13(2) (criminal misconduct by public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act,” the judge said.
During the hearing, the investigating agency informed the court that it was further probing the case as directed by it.
The court on the last date had stated that the probe agency had not identified Ms. Maliwal’s associates with whose connivance alleged illegal practices were adopted and directed it to probe their role and file a supplementary charge-sheet against them.
“From material placed on record, it appears that the investigating agency has not identified other associates of Ms. Maliwal with whose connivance the illegal practices were adopted,”the Judge had said.
Former DCW chief
The ACB had initiated a probe into the allegations against Ms. Maliwal on a complaint by former DCW head Barkha Shukla Singh in September last year. Ms. Singh had alleged that there was favouritism, on political lines, in hiring at the DCW as several AAP supporters were given plum posts in the Commission.
The complainant had listed the names of 85 people who allegedly got jobs without requisite credentials.
According to the ACB, due process was not followed in the recruitment. There were no advertisements nor were there any interviews. The salaries and other perks were also fixed arbitrarily, the probe agency alleged.
