After spending two nights in police custody in connection with an alleged poaching case, former Indian cricket captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was on Monday granted bail by a local court.
Pataudi, who had surrendered before the court on Saturday after evading arrest for a fortnight, was given bail by Chief Judicial Magistrate Sudhir Jiwan on the condition of furnishing a bond for Rs 50,000 and a surety in the like amount.
The former cricketer, who had spent the last two nights at the police station in Jhajhar, was earlier taken to the civil hospital after he complained of uneasiness and chest pain.
After getting permission from doctors, police took him to the court at around noon where he obtained bail.
Pataudi had on Sunday been taken to Kildodh village, around 12 km from Jhajhar, where he and seven of his associates had allegedly killed an endangered black buck and two hares.
He had surrendered before the court on Saturday after the Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea. The court sent him to police custody for one day, which was then extended by another day.
A first information report was registered against Pataudi and seven others on June 5 after police recovered carcasses of a black buck and two rabbits from the vehicle in which they were travelling.
Earlier, as the police along with Pataudi were on their way to Delhi to recover the Registration Certificate of the Maruti Gypsy allegedly used in the hunt, a man met them at some distance from Jhajjhar and handed over the vehicle papers.
The vehicle, registered in the 65-year-old Pataudi's name, had been impounded from his bungalow in Vasant Vihar in southwest Delhi.
Out of the seven accused in the poaching case, only one Madan Singh was on regular bail while six others are still at large.
Pataudi and seven others -- Shashi Singh, Dayal Singh, Shaheed Ahmad, Daya Suddin, Mohammad Ayub Khan, Karam Singh and Balwan -- are booked under various sections of the Wildlife Act.
Jhajjar police had issued three summonses asking Pataudi and the other accused to join the probe.
The police had unsuccesfully conducted raids at several places in Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh to nab them. If found guilty, they face a jail term of up to seven years and a fine of Rs 25,000.
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