The Rajasthan High Court has granted interim protection from arrest to Santosh Bansal, former chairperson of the Hanumangarh Municipal Council, in a case involving alleged missing municipal files and embezzlement. The order keeps the criminal proceedings pending while preventing her arrest in connection with the FIR for the time being.
A single-judge bench of Justice Sanjeet Purohit at the high court’s principal seat in Jodhpur passed the order on Wednesday after hearing Bansal’s petition. The court admitted the petition for consideration and directed that it be listed after four weeks.
The case was registered at Hanumangarh Town police station under Sections 381, 409, 193 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. The sections relate to theft by an employee, criminal breach of trust, fabricating false evidence and criminal conspiracy. The allegations concern missing municipal records and alleged irregularities. The FIR’s allegations have not been established by a final court finding.
Bansal, who is the wife of MLA Ganesh Raj Bansal, argued through her advocate Kunal Upadhyay that the FIR was intended to harass her and was politically motivated. The court observed that this contention had prima facie merit, referring to multiple FIRs registered within a short period and the substantial delay in reporting the alleged offences.
According to the submissions recorded in the case, the current FIR was registered in 2026 but concerns alleged incidents dating back to 2006 and 2013. Upadhyay argued that the allegations were general and did not establish Bansal’s individual role in the alleged offences.
The defence also referred to two earlier cases concerning alleged incidents dating back to 2003. Those cases were quashed by a coordinate bench of the high court on September 29, with the court finding that the proceedings amounted to an abuse of legal process intended to harass Bansal, according to the submissions made before the bench.
Upadhyay further submitted that the allegations involving misappropriation and the disappearance of government files were directed at co-accused Malchand and Gangaram. Both had also secured interim protection from arrest from a coordinate bench, the defence told the court.
The order does not conclude the criminal case or determine whether municipal records were removed or whether embezzlement occurred. It only provides interim protection from arrest while the petition remains under consideration. The matter is scheduled to return before the high court after four weeks.
