india

Updated: Oct 15, 2019 01:11 IST

A day after Tripura’s former PWD minister Badal Choudhury was booked on charge of corruption, a local court on Monday granted him an anticipatory bail till October 16.

The West Tripura District and Sessions Court granted the bail to Badal Choudhury on the condition of a personal bail bond of Rs 3 lakhs The court also asked the police to produce case diary on the next hearing date on Wednesday, said the ex-minister’s counsel Puroshattam Roy Barman.

“There is no merit in the case against him and he got anticipatory bail from the court. Choudhury has been cooperating with the investigation. He is ready to face trial if a charge sheet is filed against him,” said Roy Barman.

The former minister was grilled thrice by the Vigilance Commission regarding the matter. Choudhury was PWD minister for four terms in the Left era.

Besides the minister, cases were lodged against two other ex-officials including former chief secretary Yashpal Singh and former PWD engineer-in-chief Sunil Bhowmik on Sunday on the charge of corruption, cheating, criminal breach of trust, causing disappearance of evidence of offence etc., related to infrastructures construction works in 2008-09. The amount involved with these construction works have been learnt to be over Rs. 600 crore.

Police detained Sunil Bhowmik Monday morning.