Menakuru Sukumar Reddy, one of the former directors of the beleaguered Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL), managed to get a bail from a Chandigarh court on Thursday in a cheque bounce case worth crores of rupees.

There were non-bailable warrant against Reddy but the court granted the bail on merit because it was not a criminal complaint. He was granted bail against bonds of Rs 20 lakh (Rs 5 lakh each in four different cases registered against him).

Confirming the development, DSP Ashish Kumar of Chandigarh police (central), said, "There were non-bailable warrants but the court could grant bail on merit, as it was not a criminal complaint. We are making efforts to arrest the other accused."

He was arrested on a complaint by Religare Finvest, which had lodged an FIR that DCHL had defaulted on a payment of Rs 100 crore. In its complaint, lodged with the Chandigarh police, Religare stated that two cheques of Rs 6 crore issued by DCHL in its favor had bounced.

A team from the Chandigarh police had arrested Reddy in Hyderabad on the night of Wednesday and brought him back to Chandigarh by air on Thursday morning.

Warrants have also been issued against other directors of DCHL and a team of police is in search of them. The list of accused includes former DCHL chairman T Venkattram Reddy, vice-chairman & authorized signatory P K Iyer, managing director T Vinayak Ravi Reddy, and erstwhile directors Venkaparamani Suresh and Karthik Iyer Parasuraman.