BHOPAL: The Jabalpur High Court, on Wednesday, quashed Economic Offences Wing (EOW) probe into IAS officer SR Mohanty’s role into Madhya Pradesh State Industries Development Corporation (MPSIDC) Inter-corporate Deposit (ICD) scam along with state government’s subsequent sanction to prosecute him.
A high court bench, comprising Justice SK Gangele and AK Shrivastava, acquiesced with Mohanty’s submission that the EOW had not followed the Supreme Court order to probe the case afresh. The EOW included developments up to 2011 only in its probe. The HC said that the probe should not have been based on old facts, old documents and old case diary. The HC also quashed state government’s prosecution sanction given on the basis of the probe.
The HC ordered that if the EOW chooses to probe the case afresh then it should start from the beginning and not take old facts into consideration.
The decision has come as a major relief to Mohanty, who is presently serving as chairperson of MP Board of Secondary Education. He was MD of MPSIDC when the alleged scam took place. The court said that government counsel failed to prove that the EOW conducted a fresh probe. The EOW could not produce the grounds on which it concluded Mohanty’s culpability.
EOW is probing Rs 719 crore ICS scam since 2004. The SC had directed that a fresh probe be conducted into the case.
A 1982-batch IAS officer Mohanty is the senior-most officer of the MP cadre and was in race for chief secretaryship after superannuation of Anthony de Sa. However, he was placed out of consideration zone after the government sanctioned his prosecution.
