New Delhi: Nine days after his arrest for alleged drug abuse, Rahul Mahajan was today granted bail by a special court, with the prosecution having failed to prove his involvement in "systematic and organised drug trafficking" or for possessing a commercial quantity of contraband.
Special judge Swarna Kanta directed the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan's son to furnish a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh and a surety of the like amount, and ordered him not to leave Delhi without its permission till the chargesheet was filed.
Rejecting the contention that Rahul was involved in financing the contraband, the court said, "The investigating agency was not able to distinguish between financing through one single transaction for personal consumption and a series of financial transactions.
"At this stage, it prima facie appears that a single transaction is being stretched in the facts of the instant case to fall in the ambit of a series of transactions as to take the case under section 27A of the NDPS Act. This cannot be legally acceptable."
Rahul was arrested on June 5 under the NDPS Act after his admission to Apollo Hospital in a critical condition early on June 2 because of suspected drug abuse.
His companion Vivek Moitra, Pramod Mahajan's key aide, was declared dead on arrival due to respiratory system failure caused by the combined effects of heroin, cocaine, opioid alkaloids and ethyl alcohol.
While it was clear that Rahul, Moitra and Sahil Zaroo had consumed heroin that night, ordered and paid for by Moitra, the court said, "Unfortunately, the crucial facts and truth may not ever come to surface due to the death of Moitra."
The court directed Rahul not to tamper with any evidence. It also ordered him to surrender his passport and not to leave the country without its permission.
Meanwhile, Zaroo's bail application will come up for argument tomorrow before special judge S Gupta as also the prosecution application for conducting the brain-mapping and narco analysis tests of Rahul Mahajan.
Rahul was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on June 5 following his admission to Apollo Hospital in a critical condition on the intervening night of June 1 and 2 because of suspected drug abuse.
