LACCFED scam: Rangnath Misra's bail plea rejected

Alahabad High Court today trashed the bail application of former Uttar Pradesh minister Rangnath Misra who is an accused in multi-crore Labour and Construction Co-operative Federation (LACCFED) scam case.
Justice Aditya Nath Mittal of the Lucknow Bench passed the order on an application moved by Misra in the case, which is registered in Hussainganj police station of Lucknow under various sections concerning Prevention of Corruption Act besides criminal conspiracy.
According to prosecution, Misra, who was a cabinet minister in Mayawati government had allegedly received a sum of Rs 1.25 crore as illegal gratification for granting construction contract to LACCFED.
During the probe, the name of Misra emerged in the statement of the witnesses after which he was arrested.

However, defence argued that the former minister was "wrongly" implicated but the court was of the view that "at this stage there is no reason to believe that the applicant has been wrongly named by the witnesses".
The court also observed that "without expressing any opinion on the merit, I do not find it a fit case of grant of bail. The application of bail is, therefore, rejected".