JUDGMENT

Jyotsna Rewal Dua, J. - Where, based on alleged, prima facie, strong evidence, serious allegations of siphoning of student scholarship funds, cheating, criminal breach of trust, criminal misconduct, forgery, conspiracy and corruption etc. are levelled against a government official, then should he be granted regular bail on the ground that the investigating agency will take indefinite and indeterminate time, which may spread to years together for completely investigating the matter, considering the fact that all other government officials involved and challaned in the FIR were never taken into custody, is the main question raised in this bail petition.

2. Gist of Allegations:-

2(i). An FIR No.133 of 2018 was registered on 16.11.2018 at Police Station East, Shimla. FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint made by the State Project Officer, State Project Monitoring and New Initiative Unit, Department of Higher Education, Himachal Pradesh, Shimla. It was alleged in the FIR that various complaints were received in the Education Department regarding nonreceipt of scholarships by the students under the State and Centrally Sponsored Schemes for SC/ST/OBC/MC students. Prelimi