14-day judicial custody for ex-Mayor

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, January 16

The bail application of former Mayor Suresh Sehgal got rejected today and he has been sent to judicial custody. Today, the former Mayor appeared in the court and was sent to judicial custody for 14 days.

Sehgal’s advocate Naval Sehgal said now, the bail application would be moved in the sessions court. “Since the bail application has been declined by the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), we will file a bail application in the sessions court,” he said.

The case

Former Mayor Suresh Sehgal had sparked a row by publicly hitting a building inspector and hurling abuses at him. The building inspector, Dinesh Joshi, along with other official, had gone to the Shivrajgarh Colony, where reportedly an illegal construction was being done in a house. The owner of the house called up Sehgal to the spot. Sehgal had then pushed the building inspector and hurled abuses at him.

The owner of the house, Sulakshan Sharma, also joined in and roughed him up, claiming that Joshi asked Rs 10,000 as bribe, a charge that was denied by the MC officials.

Series of events

On October 29, 2018, after the incident took place, the video of Sehgal in which the whole scene had got captured went viral. From November 1, MC officials went on a strike for several days seeking his arrest. On November 15, Mayor Suresh Sehgal who had filed an anticipatory bail application had got interim relief from the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the case.

After getting relief, Sehgal was given a grand welcome to the city and he had always fought against corruption and would continue to do so.

But, on December 17, the bail plea of former Mayor Suresh Sehgal was rejected by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Sehgal had represented the BJP when he was the Mayor from 1997-2002, before moving to the Congress and then to the SAD.