Chandigarh, June 22 (IANS) The Punjab and Haryana High Court Tuesday granted interim bail to former inspector general of Haryana Police M.S. Ahlawat, who is accused of molesting a woman lawyer, saying he cannot be arrested till July 13.

Justice Alok Singh passed the order on Ahlawat's plea seeking bail.

"There is no need for Ahlawat's custodial interrogation. He is ready to cooperate with the police. There is no problem in submitting his voice and writing samples with the police," Ahlawat's lawyer Ajay Jain told the court.

Police have declared Ahlawat an absconder and issued a look-out notice for him after he went underground following a court in Haryana's Yamunanagar town June 16 rejecting his bail plea.

He was booked June 8 for molesting a woman lawyer in May 2002.

The Haryana Police also constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the molestation case against Ahlawat, eight years after Harvinder Kaur, a resident of Yamunanagar, first made her complaint. The SIT is yet to submit its report.

Harvinder Kaur alleged that she was sexually harassed by Ahlawat in 2002. He was then superintendent of police of Yamunanagar district.

She said Ahlawat tried to harass her when she had gone to meet him in connection with one of her court cases in May 2002.

The lawyer alleged that the police officer insisted she come to his residence and sought sexual favours from her. In protest, she also sat outside the office of the state police chief and demanded strict action against the officer.

An inquiry was conducted by a senior official of the Haryana Police but he recommended another departmental inquiry against Ahlawat.

In a similar incident of molestation involving a Haryana policeman, former director general of police S.P.S. Rathore was convicted of molesting teenager Ruchika Girhotra in 1990. Ruchika committed suicide three years later

Rathore was awarded 18 months rigorous imprisonment and is currently lodged in Chandigarh's Burail Jail.