Tainted additional SP withdraws anticipatory bail

JAIPUR: Tainted additional superintendent of police Lokesh Sonwal on Thursday withdrew his anticipatory bail petition which was applied to evade his arrest by the anti-corruption bureau. A single judge bench of Rajasthan high court on Thursday last week had directed the additional SP to surrender before the trial court within seven days and had stayed his arrest till then.Sonwal was on run after being named by the ACB in police corruption racket and filed a petition before the high court for quashing the FIR registered by ACB and two other petitions, including the order declaring him absconder. Sonwal was declared absconder in April this year.Since the seven-day period was expiring on Thursday, an anticipatory bail was moved by the accused. It was contended by petitioner's counsel that he is ready and willing to participate in the proceedings and is present in the high court personally to undertake his personal presence before the ACB. However, the single bench of Justice K S Ahluwaliya was not moved by the presence of the errant official and observed, "If this be the position, we may change the order and vacate the stay on his arrest. We would like to know when the stay is not there, why the official has not been arrested?"Last week, Justice N K Jain-II had directed Sonwal to immediately surrender before the court within a period of seven days. Considering the observations made by the bench, Sonwal withdrew his petition for granting anticipatory bail.