DPS NOC: Guj HC grants Shroff protection from arrest till Jan

The Gujarat High Court on Friday granted educationist Manjula Pooja Shroff protection from arrest till January 7 in a forgery case filed by a state government official.

Shroff is the MD and CEO of Kalorex Group which runs the Delhi Public School (DPS)- East school.

She approached the High Court after a lower court had recently denied anticipatory bail in a case of forgery filed with Ahmedabad (Rural) police on November 29 by District Education Officer R R Vyas.

In his complaint, Vyas had alleged school authorities forged a no-objection certificate (NOC), which was submitted to the Central Board of Secondary Education in 2010 to get affiliation for the school.

The complaint named Shroff, her partner Hiten Vasant and former principal Anita Dua.

In her plea before the court of Justice A Y Kogje, Shroff said the FIR was lodged almost nine years after her school received CBSE affiliation, and also sought relief claiming the complaint did not indicate her direct involvement in the alleged crime.

After a brief hearing, Justice A Y Kogje gave her protection from arrest till January 7, when further hearing on the pre-arrest bail plea would take place.

The CBSE recently cancelled the school's affiliation after which its operations were taken over by the state government.

The matter came to the fore after a case of kidnapping and wrongful confinement was lodged with Ahmedabad Rural police against self-styled godman Nithyananda, whose ashram was located on a plot of land leased from the school.

Meanwhile, a lower court on Friday rejected the bail applications of two of Nithyananda's disciples, Pranpriya and Priyatatva.

Their bail pleas were rejected by sessions court judge J A Thakkar today.

Both the women, who used to live in the ashram, were arrested last month.