Jaipur: The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to BJP leader and former MLA Girraj Singh Malinga, who has been accused of assaulting an engineer with the state’s electricity department.
A bench of Justice MM Sundaresh and Justice Arvind Kumar has asked the trial court to decide the conditions of bail.
Additional Advocate General Shiv Mangal Sharma, on behalf of the state government, meanwhile opposed the bail and said that there are serious allegations against the accused.
In fact, Girraj Singh Malinga is accused of attacking an Assistant Engineer and a Junior Engineer of the Electricity Department while being an MLA. After the Supreme Court’s order in the case, Malinga surrendered to the SC-ST Court of Dholpur district on November 20.
The Supreme Court had asked Malinga to surrender in two weeks during the hearing on November 8 in the assault case. The apex court had said that it will start hearing the case four weeks after the surrender.
Harshadapati and Nitin Gulati were assaulted on March 28 2022 at the Bari Discom office in Dholpur. Harshadapati had filed a case against the then Congress MLA Girraj Singh Malinga and others on March 29 for assault, obstruction in government work and under the SC-ST Act. Five people were arrested in the case.
After the incident, the then Dholpur SP Shivraj Meena was also transferred. There was anger among the employees of the corporation after the assault on the engineers of the electricity department. On May 11, 2022, Girraj Malinga surrendered before the then Police Commissioner of Jaipur Anand Srivastava. On May 12, he was produced in the SC-ST court which sent Malinga to 15-day judicial custody.
Girraj Singh Malinga, accused of assaulting Harshadapati and a junior engineer in the Bari Discom office of Dholpur, was granted bail by the High Court on May 17, 2022. However, on July 5, 2022, the high court revoked his bail, citing its misuse.
During the hearing, Harshadapati argued that Malinga had exploited his bail under the pretext of a COVID-19 health concern. Once released, he allegedly organised a procession, threatened the victim and witnesses, and undermined the legal process. This led to Harshadapati’s plea for the cancellation of Malinga’s bail, which the court upheld.
Malinga, a former BJP candidate from the Bari Assembly seat in the 2023 elections, lost to Jaswant Singh Gurjar of BSP. He had previously served as the MLA from Bari for 15 consecutive years.
He contested the election for the first time in 2008 on a BSP ticket and became an MLA. After this, he joined Congress. He became MLA in 2013 and 2018 on Congress ticket. When Congress did not give him a ticket in the 2023 elections, he left Congress and joined BJP.
(IANS)
