Court reserves order on anticipatory bail plea of Nirmal Baba

ARARIA: A local court today reserved an order on the anticipatory bail plea filed by self-proclaimed godman Nirmal Baba in connection with a case of fraud and forgery.

District Judge Sanjay Kumar reserved his order on the anticipatory bail application of Nirmal Baba after hearing arguments by his counsel Dev Narayan Sen and the Public Prosecutor (PP) Laxmi Narayan.

Nirmal Baba had filed the anticipatory bail application in Araria court in the wake of a recent Patna High Court order which had quashed a non-bailable warrant against him, but with a rider that police can arrest a person who has been alleged to have committed crime under cognisance and non-bailable sections of the law.

The Patna High Court said that whenever an arrest was imperative, then the investigating officer could arrest an accused person as per the provisions of the law.

Rakesh Kumar Singh, a native of Araria district, had filed a case against the godman at Forbesganj police station on April 21 last alleging that his financial problems were not resolved despite the baba's assurance to solve it for which he had deposited Rs 1000 in the latter's bank account.

A lower court in Araria district had issued a non-bailable warrant of arrest on May 19 last against Nirmal Baba.