Tuesday, December 21 2004 20:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today (Dec 21, 2004) granted bail to Baazee.com CEO and US citizen Avnish Bajaj, arrested in the obscene MMS case but asked him to surrender his passport and not to leave the country without permission of the trial court.

Vacation Judge Justice Vikramjit Sen asked Bajaj, booked by the police under various sections of Information Technology Act and Indian Penal Code, to furnish two sureties of Rs one lakh each to the satisfaction of the trial court and take part in the investigation.

"The evidence that has been collected indicates only that the obscene material may have been unwittingly offered for sale on the website and that heinous nature of the alleged crime may be attributable to some other person," it felt.

The court also took into account the fact that Bajaj had been co-operating in the investigation and "he was of Indian origin with family roots in our country".

"The nature of the alleged offence is such that the evidence has already crystallised and may even be tamper proof," court said agreeing with defence counsel Arun Jaitley.

On the preliminary objection raised by Delhi Police counsel Mukta Gupta that the accused should have gone to the sessions court before coming to the High Court after rejection of bail plea by the Magistrate's court, the court said, "The State ought to have articulated this objection at the very first instance, on the previous date of hearing."

However, it rejected Jaitley's argument that refusal of bail to Bajaj would adversely impact e-commerce and India would be the eventual loser. "These are not considerations which will prevail or tamper the courts' decision whether to grant or reject bail," Justice Sen observed.