Interim Bail for Pratap Khati

Kalimpong, Nov. 18: Pratap Khati, the president of the ABGL’s youth wing, was today granted an interim bail by the assistant chief judicial magistrate’s court where he was produced a day after a Delhi police team arrested him in connection with a fraud case.

Granting him bail, the judge, S. Mondal, directed Khati to appear before the Delhi court, which had issued an arrest warrant against him, before November 25.

The youth leader, in his late thirties, was arrested on charges of cheating in which a Delhi-based placement agency, Real Service, is alleged to have duped eight persons from the hills of about Rs 16 lakh.

The victims are believed to have paid the money to the placement agency in 2003 through its Kalimpong franchisee, Global Placements, which was run by Khati, a lawyer. The franchisee is now closed.

Police said Khati was produced in court today by the crime branch of the Delhi police to secure a transit remand. “We are only providing logistical support to our colleagues from Delhi. We are no where in the picture in this case,” said an officer.

An officer of the four-member Delhi police team, refused comment. “We are not authorised to speak to the media,” he said.

Today, when Khati was brought to the court under police escort, a large crowd of people, including some of the victims of the fraud and their family members, had gathered on the premises. They shouted slogans “Pratap Khati murdabad” (go down) and demanded that he be meted out exemplary punishment. Posters also appeared in the town in the name of Kalimpong Youths, urging lawyers not to take up Khati’s case.

About a month ago, Khati’s Maruti van was turned on its side and his house was pelted with stones allegedly by the youth wing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which has been at loggerheads with the ABGL.

Yesterday, the ABGL leader was questioned by the Delhi police team at the Kalimping police station. The case under section 420 of the IPC is over three years old. In November 2006, a Delhi police team had visited the hill town in connection with the same case.

Khati had maintained his innocence in the past. He had claimed to have lodged a complaint against the Real’s managing director, S.D. Sharma, at the Kalkaji police station in Delhi on August 23, 2005, accusing him of not getting jobs for his clients despite accepting the money.

However, some of the victims The Telegraph have spoken to in the past are not happy with Khati’s role in the entire episode. “He waited for more than two years before acting against Sharma,” one of them had said.

Home secretary

Bengal home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti on Tuesday said that he would visit north Bengal from November 23 to 25 to prepare a report on the situation in the hills. The report would be sent to the Centre prior to another tripartite meeting with the Morcha.

“I will be in Siliguri and Cooch Behar for three days to prepare a report on the condition there,” he said at the Writers’ Buildings.