Patna, March 24: A high court single bench of Justice Birendra Kumar today stayed the arrest of suspended JDU MLA and former vice-chancellor (VC) of Bihar Agriculture University (BAU) Mewalal Choudhary while hearing his bail petition in a corruption case.

Choudhary is accused of committing irregularities in the appointment of 162 assistant professors/junior scientists during his tenure as VC in 2012. Choudhary served as VC till 2015 before he became an MLA from Tarapur in Munger district.

On March 8, a Bhagalpur court of ADJ Rakesh Malviya rejected Choudhary's anticipatory bail petition. He has been charged under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

The court granted anticipatory bail to Choudhary and has sought the case diary from the lower court, said Dilip Kumar Sinha, the government lawyer. Sinha said it was the judge's discretion to grant anticipatory bail to an accused or not after considering factors, including status of the case, the involvement of the accused in the case and whether the accused can abscond or not. Till then no coercive action shall be taken against the applicant, Sinha added.

Choudhary's counsel Baidya Nath Thakur told the court that Choudhary had no role in the appointment process as it was done by a selection committee and hence he be granted bail.

The varsity had submitted a complaint against Choudhary for irregularities. Following the Chancellor's approval, a probe committee headed by Justice (retd) Syed Mohammed Mahfooz Alam of the high court, initiated legal action against Choudhary and lodged a case against him at Sabour police station.

The committee found that several appointments during his tenure were made by ignoring the candidates' performance in written test and academic records. Those selected were given high marks in the interview and PowerPoint presentation.