New Delhi [India], July 19 (ANI): After 32 years of trial, Rouse Avenue Court has decided to close a corruption case against a former IAS officer. It was noted that the main accused, now aged about 90 years, became unstable and of unsound mind and was declared “unfit to stand trial.”
The court also ordered confiscation of his several properties in South Delhi and said the properties falls in the category of Benami properties.
The special judge (PC Act), Anil Antil, in a recent judgement said that any delay by any stakeholder in the dispensation of the criminal justice system, be it by investigating agency or by the unscrupulous devices adopted by the accused,, not only cause miscarriage of justice, rather “delay becomes an instrument of inflicting fatal blow on the efforts of justice dispensation.”
And, I end with a quote: “when the system fails, the truth remains hidden in the shudders of injustice”, said Special Judge Anil Antil.
On delay in the trial, the court stated that the case at hand is a classical example wherein justice has become casualty not only to the protracted trial but also to the deliberate lapses and to the perfunctory, shoddy investigation on the part of the Agency, wherein it seems that from day one the Agency never intended to take the case to its logical conclusion.
The court noted that the agency had cited 327 witnesses in total. Out of which, 48 witnesses were shown to be residing at the temporary addresses of hotels and guest houses, and the agency was well aware that they would never be found available to appear before the court for deposition.
The remaining 200 witnesses had either expired, left the address, or, due to their ailments, were in incapacity to appear and depose before the court. So, at the end, only 87 witnesses were examined, including the substituted witnesses during this inordinate long period of trial commencing from the year 1992, when the charge sheet was filed, that is about 32 years.
The court further noted that the crime seems to have been committed in a very calibrated and planned manner, wherein details and other particulars of the persons, some of whom were fictitious/non-existing, seem to have been used in acquiring the properties by layering off ill-gotten money without their consent and knowledge.
The court, in conclusion, said, “The prosecution has miserably failed to prove its case against Inderjeet Singh (brother of former IAS) and thereby he is acquitted of all the charges so pressed against him, noted that he had no knowledge, and claims no legal right or interest or title over the four properties standing in his name at Nehru Place falls in the category of Benami properties, and thereby stands confiscated and be vested in the Government of India.”
The CBI had registered the FIR in 1987 against Surender Singh Ahluwalia the then IAS and posted as Chief Secretary to the Government of Nagaland at Kohima, alleging that while functioning in different capacities in Nagaland and New Delhi, he acquired assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
CBI also named 3 other accused in the FIR including the younger brother of main accused. Two accused persons died during the trial. (ANI)
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