RS member Anil Kumar Sahani gets bail in leave travel fraud case

A court here on Wednesday granted bail to Rajya Sabha member Anil Kumar Sahani in an alleged Leave Travel Concession (LTC) fraud case.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal granted bail to Sahani and two others and asked them to furnish personal and surety bonds of Rs 1 lakh each.

Besides Sahani, the others accused granted bail are then Office Superintendent of Air India N.S. Nair and an employee of Delhi-based Air Cruise Travels Pvt Ltd, Anup Singh Panwar.

They appeared before the court in compliance of summons issued against them.

Meanwhile, the court issued non-bailable warrant against another accused, Arvind Tiwari, who works with Murgai Travels and did not turn up before the court despite summons.

Sahani and others have been booked under various section dealing with cheating, forgery and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The case was registered on October 31, 2013, against Sahani and others.

The CBI alleged that during 2012, Sahani entered into a criminal conspiracy with Air Cruise Travels Private Ltd and others aiming to cheat the government by claiming fake reimbursement of expenditure incurred upon purported air journeys along with other companions.

Sahani, in collusion with other persons, used forged e-tickets and fake boarding passes and claimed Rs 14 lakh as Travelling Allowance and Daily Allowance (TA/DA) reimbursement without actually undertaking the journey, the CBI said.

The court observed that Sahani also committed offence under Section 201 (destruction of evidence), as he destroyed the TA Claim Form and erased and deleted the signature from the e-tickets, which he had taken back from the office of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat in the name of verification.

Sahani, a Janta Dal-United member from Bihar, however, denied the charges.

--IANS

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