Babubhai Kataras fourth bail plea rejected in human trafficking case

A city court here on Friday denied bail to suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Babubhai Katara, who is chargesheeted in a human trafficking case.

New Delhi, Aug 10 : A city court here on Friday denied bail to suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Babubhai Katara, who is chargesheeted in a human trafficking case.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate A K Kuhar refused bail to Katara on the ground that the alleged offence had become "grave" as it was committed by a sitting Parliamentarian.

Katara had applied bail for the fourth time in the case.

He pleaded that he could not hinder the investigations as the police had already filed the chargesheet in the case and also that he had already spent over 90 days in custody since his arrest on April 18.

A Sessions Court here on August 1 had rejected the third bail plea of Katara.

Additional Sessions Judge S N Gupta upholding the denial of bail by the trial court had said: "In this matter the petitioner is an elected member of Parliament and still he has committed an offence."

Earlier, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kamini Lau, had rejected two consecutive bail applications of Katara.

The judge said that Katara used to take persons, posing them as his family members, abroad for financial gains.

The case, involving some high profile people, surfaced in April with the arrest of Katara at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. He was taking one Paramjeet Kaur to Canada on his wife's passport along with a teenaged body on his son's passport.

On July 16, police filed a chargesheet against Katara and five other accused in the case and invoked a stringent Section 467 of IPC, which pertains to forgery of valuable security, will, etc.

Apart from Section 467, the police has charged the six accused under several other provisions, including Sections 420 (cheating), 471 (using forged documents as genuine) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

ANI