A special court has cited "major lapses" in a probe on part of the investigating officers (IOs) while acquitting a former Income Tax Commissioner (Appeals) in a bribery case of demanding ₹2.2 lakh for closing an assessment order of ₹38 lakh relating to Tech Mahindra.
The special CBI court said in its judgment that due to major lapses on part of the IOs, the prosecution case could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt. It further said that it is required to note that both investigating officers did not conduct proper and sincere investigation and instead “acted very casually”, giving contradictory statements against each other (in court testimony).
Loopholes left in evidence
Special CBI Judge AS Sayyad also noted that the IOs have left some loophole in not collecting crucial evidence. The court also noted that while the complainant (a senior manager at Tech Mahindra) had alleged that the first demand for bribe was made eight to nine months before he finally made the complaint, he “preferred to remain silent” for a long period. It said this “huge inordinate delay” is unexplained by the prosecution.
What is the bribery case about?
As per the case, the officer Ram Meena was caught accepting the bribe amount. The court referred to some missing documents regarding the arrest of a person during the probe, who later appeared as a prosecution witness. It said the “mystery behind missing documents” creates “serious doubt” on the trap proceeding in which the official was caught accepting the bribe.
The court also referred to the testimony of two witnesses and said that something which is important is withheld by IO and the same crucial documents were not submitted along with the chargesheet. It said in another part of the judgment that the investigation in the case is “not free of doubt”.
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