The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday granted bail to former Minister laxmikant Sharma 18 months after his arrest by the special task force (STF) for his alleged role in Vyapam scam.
Sharma was arrested from his official residence, 74 Bungalow Area in Dayanand Nagar by the STF sleuths on June 15, 2014.
Thereafter six more cases were registered against him by the probe agency. He had been in jail since then. With bails in all cases, Sharma is likely to be released from the prison on Saturday.
He was a culture, public relations, technical and higher education Minister in Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's Cabinet in the second term.
However, he had lost the previous Assembly elections from Sironj constituency in Vidisha district. Official sources said that Sharma has received bails in all the seven cases and he is likely to be released from jail on Saturday.
Sources said that Sharma was arrested only after he lost the Assembly elections and despite his pleading innocent, he was nabbed in the case. After his arrest, time and again Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had at different forums claimed that on his initiative the Vyapam case was investigated and no matter how powerful anybody is, action would be taken.
He cited the example of Sharma saying that his former Cabinet colleague was in jail after it came to fore during the investigation that he played an important role.