Patna, May 23: A vacation bench of the high court on Wednesday ordered a stay on the non-bailable arrest warrant against self-proclaimed godman Nirmaljit Singh Narula, alias Nirmal Baba, for four weeks.

Araria Chief judicial magistrate (CJM) had on May 18 issued the warrant against him. The single bench of Justice Samarendra Pratap Singh fixed the next date for hearing after four weeks. The court passed the direction on a petition filed by Nirmal Baba challenging the lower court’s order issuing non-bailable warrant against him.

The counsel also pleaded that an anticipatory bail application of Baba is pending before Araria district and sessions judge and so no question arises on issuing the non-bailable warrant by the CJM’s court and the same is fit to be quashed. The court in Araria had issued the non-bailable warrant against Nirmal Baba on Saturday last on the basis of an FIR registered by the police following a complaint by one Rakesh Kumar Singh on April 21.

Araria superintendent of police Shivdeep Lande had constituted a team headed by a deputy superintendent of police to execute the warrant.

Bail for teachers

A single bench of the high court, presided by Justice Shivaji Pandey, on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to 25 teachers, including Umesh Pragapati and Amresh Kumar of Aurangabad district, in connection with irregularity in abstract contingency (AC) and detailed contingency (DC) bills.

The petitioner’s counsel, Krishna Prasad Singh, pleaded that without carrying out proper investigation, education officers of Aurangabad had made 80 teachers accused.