HC rejects dismissed IAS official Arvind Joshi's bail plea

The Madhya Pradesh High Court today rejected the anticipatory bail application of IAS officer Arvind Joshi who was dismissed from service for allegedly amassing wealth beyond known sources of his income.
Turning down his bail plea, Justice G S Solanki said that the applicant is "involved in a conspiracy to create a forged document in regard to insurance policies and other documents related to investment".
The court observed that "it is revealed from the order sheets of trial courts that despite warning, he (Arvind) was not present in the court at the time of hearing of his bail application. Therefore, the possibility of his fleeing from the justice cannot not be ruled out".

"The bone marrow transplantation could have been done before filing this bail application since there was no hurdle for him to take such special treatment", the court said in response to Arvind's plea that he suffers from blood cancer which requires bone marrow transplant within three months.
Earlier, Lokayukta Special Senior Prosecutor Pankaj Dubey opposed Joshi's bail saying that he has amassed 3,151 per cent wealth disproportionate to known sources of his income. He contended that Arvind amassed ill gotten wealth of Rs 43,20,23,416, which is a huge amount.
"Thus, a different approach is required for consideration to grant bail to the applicant. While the court has already rejected the bail application of the co-accused dismissed IAS officer Tinoo Joshi who is the applicant's wife on October 30, 2014," he contended.

Arvind had been absconding since August last year and the Lokayukta police made 35 futile bids to arrest him. Besides, the trial court in Bhopal had issued arrest warrants against him 15 times, Dubey told the court.
The Lokayukta police had raided the official residence of the Joshis and unearthed huge wealth amassed by the couple in December 2010, ten months after the Income Tax department carried out searches at their Bhopal residence.