A special CBI court in the city on Monday granted bail to a suspended junior clerk of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) who had been booked for corruption after he demanded Rs. 20,000 from a head constable of the RPF to process his retirement benefits.
The suspended clerk, Anand Singh had sought bail on the grounds that that he was falsely implicated in the case and being a junior clerk he does not exercise any influence to hamper investigation. His advocate also informed the court that he has been suspended from service after the arrest.
The prosecution opposed the bail plea contending that the investigation is at an initial and crucial stage and if released on bail, Singh may influence witnesses from his department or also the complainant.
Special CBI judge MT Asim while granting him bail stated that, “It is pertinent to note that this is a trap case and prima-facie trap has been successful…Thus it can be gathered that substantial part of investigation has been conducted.”
The court further said that investigation to find other persons linked in the case can be done by the investigating officer even if the applicant is released on bail. Further, it said, “I do not find it a just cause to keep the applicant behind bars particularly when a substantial part of the investigation…is over.”
As per the complaint, the head constable Manohar Jadhav of RPF, Central Railway had submitted all the required documents to Singh who works in the Pension Section, Assistant Security Commissioner office, RPF, Mulund. He had received a call from Singh to come to the Accounts Section for some verification work. The following day, Singh told Jadhav that he had to pay Rs. 20,000 for the work to be done, but subsequently reduced the demand to Rs. 17,000. The head constable informed the Anti-Corruption Bureau about the issue. Around a month later, he got a call from Singh that the work was done and he must pay up. The clerk called him to the CST office instead of Thane one. The ACB had laid a trap and Singh was caught red-handed accepting the amount.
