District Magistrate of Malda, Godala Kiran Kumar, who was arrested on graft charges yesterday, was today granted conditional bail by a local court.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Siliguri, A H M Rahman granted bail to the IAS officer on a surety of Rs 5,000.
Kumar was directed by the court to provide all assistance to the investigators and the administration in connection with the case and to deposit his passport with the court till further orders.
The officer was also directed to be present in the court on January 14, 2014.
The bail was granted after the prosecution said it did not require Kumar's custody at present.
The District Magistrate was issued summons for questioning on alleged misappropriation of development funds, including sewerage, tender work and supply of CCTV cameras when he was CEO of Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority (SJDA) between 2012-13 and subsequently arrested yesterday.
The arrest led to high drama in the administrative circles of the state with Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra saying Siliguri Police Commissioner K Jayaraman had exceeded his brief by arresting Kumar as he neither informed the state government nor sought its approval.
Jayaraman was asked to relinquish charge as Siliguri police commissioner and report back to Kolkata.
