JMM case: Delhi court grants bail to Bhajan. Ajit, Yadav

A Delhi court on Wednesday granted bail to former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal and former Union ministers Ajit Singh and Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav and four others named as accused in the third chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the nearly Rs 70 million Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MPs bribery case.

The eighth accused, Ram Sharan Yadav, was taken into CBI custody after Additional Sessions Judge Ajit Bharihoke rejected his bail plea which was opposed by CBI counsel A K Dutt on the ground that the accused had threatened his secretary, Pradhuman Kumar, a witness in the case, not to say anything against him.

The other seven accused, including Ajit Singh who was declared elected to the Lok Sabha from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, executed bail bonds worth Rs 50,000 each and provided sureties of like amount in compliance with the judge's directive.

The judge also ordered the accused to surrender their passports and cautioned them against tampering with evidence in the case.

Former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, who is one of the 21 accused in the case, did not appear in court as he has been admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences for treatment of an eye ailment.

The CBI filed three chargesheets naming 21 accused in the case. The judge has consolidated all three chargesheets.

In the first chargesheet filed on October 30, 1996, the seven accused named are Rao, two former ministerial colleagues Buta Singh and Satish Sharma and the four JMM MPs, Shibu Soren, Simon Marandi, Shailendra Mahato and Suraj Mandal, who were allegedly bribed to vote against a no-confidence motion against the Rao government on July 28, 1993.

The second chargesheet filed on December 9, 1996, named six accused, including former Karnataka chief minister M Veerappa Moily.