Mumbai: Indigo pilot Arjun Menon will spend the weekend in jail despite getting bail orders, as the procedure to produce solvent surety — where a surety certificate needs to be obtained from a collector's office — is a tedious one. In a solvent surety, the bail amount is Rs 25,000 or more, and the surety has to be by a local resident.

Defence lawyer A R Pargaonkar said the surety amount is yet to be arranged.

Senior counsel Harshad Ponda, who got Menon bailed out, said, "Usually courts do not ask for a solvent surety, but lately courts have been insisting on them. In such cases, the surety certificate is to be obtained from a collector's office, which is subject to verification. It is a time consuming process, and hence the delay."

Senior advocate Rohini Salian said, "The Arjun Menon case has gathered a lot of media attention, and since he is not a permanent resident of Mumbai, he has been asked to produce a solvent surety." Jail Superintendent Swati Sathe said, "We are yet to receive his bail orders."

Interestingly, in the JW Marriot molestation case, in January, the accused were detained in jail for a longer time, due to delay in similar sureties.

Uneasy at first

Arjun Menon is lodged in barrack number 7, which has 150 inmates in each dormitory, said prison sources. Initially, he found it difficult to adjust with the inmates, who are charged for murder, robbery, theft and petty crimes. Sources said later he was spotted watching cricket and reading newspapers.