The local sessions court today granted bail to Captain Amarinder Singh and five others in the multi-crore Ludhiana City Centre scam. Captain's supporters celebrated the "victory" with laddoos and raised slogans in his favour outside the court complex.

Coming out of the court about 5 pm, Amarinder said, "The Akali government has harassed us for the last nine months. Their team of 30 hand-picked police officials had tried their best to bully us. However, I have full faith in the Indian judiciary and today's court order has reinforced it. This so-called evidence that the Vigilance claims it has to pin us down is nothing but a pack of lies, which will crumble once brought to the court."

It was a long day for Amarinder and his team, who had to wait till 5 pm for the announcement of the court orders. They reached the court at 10 am, and the legal battle over the bail issue carried on even after the lunch hour.

Unlike the previous court appearance in the case held on January 10, when the Congress did not try to put up a show of strength for Amarinder, a large number of supporters stood outside the court to greet him.

Eleven MLAs, including Sunil Jhakhar, O P Soni, Harminder Singh Pardhan, Naresh Katria, Sukhwinder Singh, Ajiab Singh, Makhan Singh and Joginder Singh, accompanied the Captain and his family to the courts.