The Karnataka high court on Tuesday granted conditional bail to Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Legislative Assembly Y Sampangi on a criminal appeal filed by him seeking quashing of the recent conviction and sentence by the Lokayukta court.

Allowing the criminal appeal filed by Sampangi, Justice V Jagannathan granted bail on his executing a personal bond of Rs one lakh and two sureties of like sum.

The court also directed Sampangi to be present whenever called upon and not to leave the country without taking the permission of the court.

The MLA who at present is lodged in jail is likely to be released only on Wednesday after completion of formalities. On June 2, Lokayukta court Judge N K Sudhindra Rao had convicted and sentenced Sampangi to three and a half years Rigorous Imprisonment and slapped Rs 1 lakh fine, besides ordering extension of the RI by six more months in case he failed to pay up.

Sampangi, who represents KGF assembly constituency, was trapped by the Lokayukta police on January 29, 2009 while accepting Rs 50,000 in cash and Rs 4.5 lakh by cheque from Farooq, a businessman to settle a civil dispute.

With inputs from PTI