HC refuses pre-arrest bail to Dahiya

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday dismissed an anticipatory bail plea filed by controversial Haryana IAS officer Vijay Dahiya, who faces arrest in the Rs 5-lakh bribery case.Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill passed the order after dismissing the plea filed by Dahiya, a 2001 Haryana cadre bureaucrat. The order was pronounced in open court but the detailed order was not available till the filing of this report.On May 3, a local court in Panchkula had rejected Dahiya’s anticipatory bail after which he had approached the high court. An FIR was registered against him by the ACB on April 20 for corruption charges at Panchkula.Claiming false implication in the case, Dahiya, who was posted as commissioner and secretary to government, Haryana, youth empowerment and entrepreneurship department, at the time the FIR was filed, submitted that for the constitution of an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act there must be a clear demand and acceptance of the bribe amount. However, in the instant case, there is neither any demand by him nor any acceptance of a bribe or any illegal gratification by him.Opposing the bail plea, the Haryana government highlighted the chat between the arrested accused Poonam Chopra, who was caught with Rs 3 lakh bribe money, and the IAS officer. The state had also produced an audio recording between the IAS officer and Chopra. The ACB also produced a confessional statement made by a former official, Deepak Sharma, who served the department as chief skill officer.