Congress MLA Arif Masood gets relief as SC stays MP HC's order

Bhopal, Aug 22 (IANS) Congress MLA Arif Masood, who has been booked under serious charges, including alleged 'forgery' and 'fraud' by Bhopal Police, got a major relief as the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a stay on his arrest.

On Wednesday, Bhopal Police had registered a case against Masood at Kohefiza police station, and an investigation was initiated in connection with alleged use of forged solvency papers for the recognition of the Indira Priyadarshini College, which is run by a society, in which Masood is the secretary.

The case was registered in compliance with the Madhya Pradesh High Court's direction, Bhopal Police Commissioner Hari Narayan Chari Mishra had told IANS on Wednesday.

Faced with serious allegations and possible arrest, Masood reached the Supreme Court.

Two senior and renowned advocates Vivek Tankha and Kapil Sibal represented Masood in the court.

Notably, a Division Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court had ordered the Bhopal Police Commissioner to register an FIR against Masood and the court had also directed that an FIR be lodged against officials of the Higher Education Department, who remained "complicit" in the matter for 20 long years and allowed the college to function.

The Bench, comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Pradeep Mittal on Monday had also ordered the constitution of an SIT led by ADGP (Telecom) Sanjiv Shami, to oversee the probe in the case and complete the investigation within three months.

The court stayed derecognition of the college for now in the interest of more than 1,000 students of the college, but clarified that there would be no new admissions in the college from the next academic session.

Notably, the issue was first raised by his political opponent and BJP leader Dhruv Narayan Singh, who is the son of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Govind Narayan Singh.

--IANS

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