Two Haryana legislators surrender before CBI court

Two Haryana legislators surrendered before a CBI court in Panchkula Saturday after Supreme Court rejected their anticipatory bail plea this week.

Earlier, the Punjab and Haryana High Court Thursday had rejected their anticipatory bail plea and told them to appear in the trial court within a week.

O.P. Jain and Zile Ram Sharma, accused of abetting the suicide of Karam Singh in Karnal district in June 2011, had sought anticipatory bail after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court in Panchkula issued non-bailable warrants against them last month.

Jain was Haryana's transport and tourism minister while Sharma was a chief parliamentary secretary before the two were forced to resign in June 2011.

Jain's personal assistant Rajinder Kumar, who has also been named by the CBI in the case, surrendered.

The two were booked that month following the mysterious death of Karam Singh near Karnal town, 130 km from here. His body, with stab wounds, was found near the National Dairy Research Institute.

The CBI had filed a chargesheet against them in the court last month. Both legislators had failed to appear before the court ever since. They had earlier refused to accept court summons.

Just a day before his death, the village headman, who was in his late 50s, gave a complaint against Jain and Sharma to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and police about an alleged fraud committed on him.

Karam Singh accused Jain and Sharma of duping him of nearly Rs.13 lakh on the pretext of providing government jobs to his son and two nephews. But they neither provided the jobs nor returned the money, his complaint said.

A witness to the headman's death, Chamail Singh, was also found dead under mysterious circumstances a week later.