U'khand High Court puts stay on arrest of IAS Pankaj Pandey

The Uttarakhand High Court Thursday put a stay on the arrest of senior IAS officer Pankaj Pandey in connection with the Rs 300 crore NH-74 compensation scam.

Pandey, who is currently under suspension, approached the high court Thursday seeking anticipatory bail in the case.

His bail application had been rejected by the lower court on January 5.           Hearing the matter, the single bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari directed the state government to file a counter affidavit in the case and granted a stay on Pandey's arrest till the next date of hearing in the case on February 12, his counsel Vipul Sharma said.

The scam is related to the alleged conversion of land use with the connivance of officials to pay selected landowners compensation 20 times more than they deserved.

The land acquisition process took place between 2011 and 2016. Pandey and another IAS official Chandresh Yadav had served as district magistrates of Udham Singh Nagar during this period.

Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra and Ruchira Gupta from the Supreme Court appeared for Pandey in the matter.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)