Saurabh Malik
Chandigarh, July 5
Nearly 26 years after the Punjab and Haryana High Court took suo motu action on a news report, “Ghost units eating up subsidy”, before ordering a CBI probe into the matter, a Bench has acquitted three accused in the corruption case registered in the matter.
In all, four persons were convicted and sentenced to two-year imprisonment by the trial court in March 2004 and the appeal was filed the same year. Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan, before whom the case was placed in March this year, heard the matter on two dates and acquitted Inderjit Singh Tandi, Pritam Singh and Raj Kumar after setting aside the impugned judgment, dated March 15, 2004, passed by the CBI Special Judge at Patiala. Appellant Gurnam Singh died during the pendency of the appeal, which stood abated.
More than two decades of wait may sound atypical, but is not exceptional. National Judicial Data Grid indicates the pendency of 4,52,267 cases, including 1,67,382 criminal cases. Otherwise, 78,647 or 17.39 per cent of the total pending cases are up to a year old; 85,269 or 18.85 per cent are pending between one and three years; 88,756 or 19.62 per cent are pending between 10 and 20 years; and 13,041or 2.88 per cent cases are awaiting adjudication for the past 20 to 30 years.
Pronouncing the order after going through the documents and hearing senior counsel Bipin Ghai and other advocates, Justice Sangwan observed that accused Pritam Singh was the general manager, while Gurnam Singh and Tandi were working at the Amritsar District Industries Centre. The CBI claimed that the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy and misused their official positions as public servants before facilitating the payment of subsidy in favour of bogus firms of proprietor Raj Kumar.
Acquitting them on 16 counts, Justice Sangwan asserted that a perusal of the investigation and statement of Inspector Bhuri Singh — the investigating officer — showed that he conducted the investigation in a casual manner. Drawing inferences, he held the four units in question to be non-existant. During a cross-examination, he was confronted with documents such as loan application, purchase of machinery and insurance cover. However, he pleaded ignorance.
“Mere exoneration in a departmental inquiry does not exonerate a person in criminal prosecution. However, the fact as admitted by the IO is that no document verified by the appellants was found to be fake or non-genuine in the departmental inquiry. It has a direct bearing on the present case, especially in view of the fact that the IO admitted that he never took any original document in possession during the investigation and all documents are photocopies attached with the chargesheet,” Justice Sangwan asserted.
4 persons were convicted in 2004
- The Punjab and Haryana High Court had taken suo motu action on a news report, “Ghost units eating up subsidy”, before ordering a CBI probe into the matter
- In all, four persons were convicted and sentenced to two-year imprisonment by the trial court in March 2004 and the appeal was filed the same year
26 yrs on, Punjab and Haryana High Court acquits 3 in corruption case
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