**Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): Bail Granted to Eight Accused in Mahakaleshwar Temple Extortion Case**
Eight of the ten accused arrested for extortion in the name of darshan at the Mahakaleshwar temple were granted bail on Monday. Two others had already secured bail last Saturday, while four accused remain absconding.
The Mahakal police had registered a case against temple employees, outsourced staff, and media persons under Sections 318 (4) (cheating and fraud), 316 (2) (breach of trust), and 316 (5) (breach of trust by public servants) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The accused — Vinod Chouksey, Rakesh Shrivastava, Abhishek Bhargava, Rajkumar Singh, Rajendra Singh Sisodia, Jitendra Singh Panwar, Omprakash Mali, Ritesh Sharma, Umesh Pandey, and Karan Singh Pawar — were arrested and sent to jail. Police presented the challan against all the accused on March 21.
According to lawyer Virendra Sharma, the accused were given an opportunity to present their side before the court. He added that the police registered the case after examining mobile phones, and no formal FIR was initially lodged as there was no complainant.
On Monday, a local court granted bail to all accused except Umesh Pandey and Jitendra Singh, who had earlier received bail from the Indore bench of the High Court.
Meanwhile, the court rejected the anticipatory bail petition filed by absconding accused Deepak Mittal last Friday. Other accused still on the run include Ashish Sharma, Pankaj Sharma, and Vijendra Yadav.
https://www.freepressjournal.in/indore/mahakaleshwar-temple-darshan-scam-8-accused-granted-bail-four-still-absconding
