The Uttarakhand High Court today granted a stay on the arrest of Yoga guru Ramdev's close aide Acharya Balkrishna, who has been charged by the CBI for procuring fake educational degrees and using them for getting a passport.
Hearing a petition, a single-member bench of the High Court headed by Justice Tarun Agrawal also asked the CBI to file a reply on the petition before it in three weeks time, said Rajendra Dobhal, counsel of Balkrishna.
The court also asked Balkrishna to cooperate with CBI in investigations against him and also to appear before the investigating agency on August 3.
The petition for stay on arrest of Balkrishna was earlier put before Justice PC Pant yesterday. However, he recused himself from hearing the petition and referred it to Chief Justice Barin Ghosh.
Balkrishna, who is charged with procuring fake educational degrees and using them for getting a passport, was summoned by the CBI to appear in its office here yesterday for interrogation. There were also reports that he might by arrested by the investigating agency.
However, instead of appearing before the CBI, Balkrishna had yesterday sent a fax to the agency seeking 20-days's time to appear stating that his passport is with the British High Commission.
The agency, however, turned down his plea and asked him to appear without the passport today.
Balkrishna had gone "missing" from his Divya Yog Mandir Ashram residence at Haridwar on July 25, a day after CBI registered a case against him for cheating and criminal conspiracy for procuring fake degree and violation of section 12 of the Indian Passport act for furnishing fake documents to get a passport.
On the other hand, Baba Ramdev in a press conference at Haridwar last evening claimed that Balkrishna's degrees are genuine and that he is in Patanjali ashram itself.