Swati Chikhlikar, wife of suspended PWD Executive Engineer (Nashik North) Satish Chikhlikar, today withdrew her application seeking anticipatory bail from a local court as the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has not named her as a joint accused in the bribery scandal.
"Swati Chikhlikar today withdrew her main application seeking anticipatory bail she had filed on May 10 in the court of Additional District and Sessions court judge H. A. Mahajan", said counsel Avinash Bhide who is representing Swati and her husband.
The sessions court had earlier rejected her interim anticipatory bail application.
The ACB, investigating the graft case, has however neither confirmed nor denied if Swati will be made a joint accused in the case as the agency had last week recovered cash worth Rs 57,69,000, gold and silver, collectively estimated over Rs 3,27,29,000, from three bank lockers in Swati's name in Ahmednagar.
ACB suspects that the suspended engineer might have registered some of his assets in his wife's name.
Chikhlikar and his colleague PWD Section Engineer Jagdish Wagh were caught red-handed by ACB on April 30 for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 22,000 from a complainant in exchange of awarding a road maintenance contract. They were formally arrested on May 3.
Meanwhile, ACB sources said that their probe in the bribery scandal was halted as both the accused, who are in police custody till May 16, were hospitalised for treatment.
The duo were admitted in the ICU of Nashik civil hospital on May 10 after they complained of hypertension. Sources at the hospital said that there condition was stable.
The ACB had estimated the total value of allegedly ill-gotten assets of the tainted executive engineer at Rs 17,55,80,292, including the seizure from his wife's bank lockers.
