Supreme Court Grants Pre-Arrest Bail To Former Chhattisgarh Advocate General Satish Chandra Verma In NAN Scam Case

The Supreme Court today granted pre-arrest bail to former Advocate General of Chhattisgarh Satish Chandra Verma in connection with the Nagrik Apurti Nigam (NAN) scam case.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta passed the order while dealing with his Special Leave Petition challenging Chhattisgarh High Court's order dated February 13, denying anticipatory bail.

Briefly put, the case involves allegations under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and the Indian Penal Code, 1860. It is the contention of the State that some incriminating WhatsApp chats between the former AG and prime accused in the Nagrik Apurti Nigam scam, Anil Tuteja and Alok Shukla were recovered by the Income Tax Department, which were shared with the Enforcement Directorate.

As per the allegations, Verma helped the prime accused persons in securing bail.

His anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the Sessions Court in November last year. When he approached the Supreme Court seeking anticipatory bail, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued that he was being "hounded" only because of change in government last year. It was further pointed out that bail was granted to the prime accused in 2019 and the state had not challenged the said bail orders (however, ED had challenged grant of bail).

On February 21, the Supreme Court issued notice on the present petition and recorded a statement on behalf of Chhattisgarh government that no coercive steps will be taken against Verma till the next date.

Appearance: Senior Advocate Vivek Tankha and Advocate-on-Record Sumeer Sodhi (for Verma); Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani (for Chhattisgarh)

Case Title: SATISH CHANDRA VERMA v. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH | SLP(Crl) No. 2600/2025

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