Samachar Plus CEO, who tried to ‘sting’ Uttarakhand CM, other bureaucrats gets bail from lower court

DEHRADUN: Editor-in-chief and chief executive officer (CEO) of Samachar Plus news channel Umesh Kumar, who is lodged in jail since October 29, was granted bail on Friday by a lower court in Dehradun.
Kumar was arrested by Dehradun police from his residence in Ghaziabad on October 28 following a complaint filed by his employee, Ayush Gaur, alleging that he pressurised him to conduct sting operations of chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and senior bureaucrats in Uttarakhand with the alleged intention of blackmailing them.
The defence lawyers have claimed in court that all charges levelled against Kumar are baseless. Earlier on Thursday, the high court rejected the plea of police to conduct Narco test on Kumar.
Police had also booked three of Kumar’s employees and Mrityunjay Mishra, a former additional resident commissioner (Uttarakhand) in New Delhi and ex registrar of Uttarakhand Ayurved University, under sections 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or of grievous hurt), 388 (extortion) and 120-b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Police had also carried out searches at his residence and other properties and seized Rs 39 lakh in cash, 16,279 US dollars, 11,030 Thai Baht and hard disks and pen drives.