Babubhai Katara granted bail in human trafficking case

The Delhi High Court granted bail to suspended BJP MP from Dahod Babubhai Katara, who was chargesheeted for allegedly taking a woman and her son abroad on his wife’s diplomatic passport last year.

A Division Bench headed by Justice H R Malhotra asked Katara on Wednesday to furnish a bail bond of Rs 25,000 and a surety of the same amount.

Charged with human trafficking and cheating, Katara has been in jail since April last year. The court accepted his plea that he has been in custody for more than a year and the investigation in the case was over.

In his bail application, filed through counsel V Madhukar, Katara said the police were trying to frame him in other cases and expressed fear that he will not get a fair trial in the case.

Katara was arrested along with Paramjeet Kaur, the woman who was trying to travel on his wife’s passport, and her son from the Indira Gandhi International Airport on April 18, 2007, just before they were to board a flight to Toronto. The three were booked under various Sections of the IPC related to forgery, cheating, impersonation and criminal conspiracy.

During investigations, police sources said, the officers found that Katara’s aide had struck a Rs 30-lakh deal with an agent. Rs 15 lakh had already been paid, they added. The three were caught after an Air India employee detected the alleged fraud and found that the woman and the boy were posing as the MP’s wife, Shardaben, and son Rajesh.

The involvement of the two-time Dahod MP in the human trafficking case had come as a surprise to his party, even as he was suspended later.

Celebrations began in Jhalod as soon as the news of his bail reached his supporters on Wednesday. They burst firecrackers and started preparing a grand welcome for Katara on his return to the state from Delhi.