Mahesh Sharma sting: Usha Thakur freed, six days after bail

NOIDA: Social worker Usha Thakur who was arrested in connection with the alleged extortion attempt on former Union minister Mahesh Sharma has been released on bail. Sixty-nine-year-old Thakur walked out of Luksar jail late on Monday evening, six days after being granted bail by the Allahabad high court in the case.
Thakur was released from jail after she completed the process of furnishing a personal bond and two local sureties as ordered by the high court.
While issuing the order on June 18, the court noted Thakur’s plea that she has no criminal record and contended that she was not named in the FIR and had been languishing in jail since May 17. Without expressing any opinion on merit of the case and “considering the facts and circumstances of the case”, the court said she was entitled for bail.
But the high court laid down three conditions for the bail — that Thakur will not tamper with the prosecution evidence, she shall appear on the dates fixed by the trial court, and she won’t directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case.
In her bail petition, Thakur had pleaded that there was no evidence against her except the confessional statement of the main accused, Alok Kumar, whom she had merely introduced to the former minister Mahesh Sharma.
Sector 20 police apprehended Thakur on May 17 in connection with the alleged blackmailing case of Sharma, who had addressed her as an “elder sister” in a press briefing held soon after the first arrest in the case. Her arrest had come days after a woman named Nishu was first nabbed in the case.
Thakur was arrested for allegedly “conniving with the main accused” Alok Kumar and the other accomplices in trapping the former minister in a sting operation. Usha had earlier vehemently denied the allegations against her, stating she was framed by Alok and others.
Nishu and Alok Kumar — the head of the now-defunct Pratinidhi channel who was arrested from Kolkata on May 2 where he had been hiding — were booked under IPC sections for extortion, blackmailing and cheating.