A Nashik court on Friday set a bail amount of `50 lakh each for accused PWD executive engineer Satish Madhukarrao Chiklikar and section engineer Jagdish Magan Wagh.
The bail amount was set by additional sessions Judge K.K. Tantrapale. Chiklikar and Wagh would be free after the surety is tendered by his relatives. However, no surety was given till evening and the process is likely to commence on Saturday.
Following bail, Chiklikar and Wagh will have to report to the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) office from 11 am to 5 pm daily for the first week. From the following week, they will have to report on Mondays and Fridays till the chargesheet is filed.
The duo is likely to be rearrested in the disproportionate assets case. Defence lawyer Avinash Bhide on Friday filed anticipatory bail applications for Chiklikar and his wife Swati in the disproportionate assets case. “No order was passed and we hope for an order by Saturday or Monday,” Bhide told The Asian Age.
The prosecution is led by the district public prosecutor Advocate Sridhar Mane. The disproportionate assets case was filed on May 28 against Chiklikar, his wife Swati, Wagh and his wife Deepika, in Sarkarwada police station by the ACB. The cases have been filed under the Anti- corruption Act, 1988.
The ACB stated that till date, Chiklikar has an income of `46 lakh from known sources and
disproportionate assets worth `14.6 crore. The total corrupt assets of the section engineer Jagdish Wagh including cash, valuables, bonds and fixed deposit, till date, amounts to `2.85 lakh crore, while assets worth `33 lakh were earned through known sources.
It may be recalled that Chiklikar and Wagh were arrested by the ACB on April 30 for taking `22,000 bribe from a contractor. They were arrested and remanded to judicial
custody for 14 days on May 16. The judicial custody expired on Thursday and they were brought to court.
This is probably the highest bail amount in India so far, following the one set for former telecom minister A. Raja.