Uttarakhand HC grants bail to Ramdev's aide Balkrishna

The Uttarakhand high court on Thursday granted bail to yoga guru Ramdev's close aide Balkrishna, nearly a month after he was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a case pertaining to fake documents.

After hearing the bail application, a single judge bench of Justice Tarun Agrawal granted bail to Balkrishna.

The court also ordered Balkrishna to furnish two personal sureties of Rs 10 lakh, Balkrishna's counsel Rajendra Dobhal said.

Balkrishna had moved the high court after he failed to get relief from lower courts, which rejected his bail pleas twice.

A day after being arrested from Haridwar on July 20, Balkrishna had filed a bail plea before the special CBI court, which rejected the application and sent him to 9-day judicial remand.

Later, Balkrishna had moved the Dehradun district court, which also rejected his bail application on July 31.

Balkrishna, who is facing the charge of using fake educational documents for obtaining an Indian passport, is currently lodged in Suddhowala Jail.

He was arrested after the CBI court issued a non-bailable warrant against him after he failed to appear before it.

The CBI had on July 10 filed a charge-sheet in the court against Balkrishna. In its charge-sheet, the CBI has also accused Naresh Chandra Dwivedi, the then principal of Sanskrit Mahavidyala Khurja in Uttar Pradesh, for allegedly helping Balkrishna obtain fake educational certificates. Dwivedi had later surrendered to the court.

The agency had booked the duo under sections of the Indian Penal Code related to criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery and imposed additional charge for the alleged violation of the Passport Act against Balkrishna.

The CBI had registered a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy against Balkrishna on July 23 last year for allegedly procuring fake degrees and violating Section 12 of the Indian Passport Act by furnishing fake documents to get a passport.

The investigative agency said its probe had established that the accused, in connivance with a co-accused, had furnished false information and submitted fake and forged high school and graduation certificates to the passport authorities for obtaining the document.