Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 31: Special Judge Anticorruption Jammu Tahir Khurshid Raina has framed charges against Dr Hemla Aggarwal, the then Principal Govt SPMR College of Commerce, Jammu, Jia Lal, the then Accounts Assistant, Jagdish Kumar, the then Storekeeper, Sunil Malik, Proprietor M/s Sun Broadcast Equipments Pvt Ltd, Bhavnish Sachdeva, Senior Manager M/s Sun Broadcast Equipment Pvt. Ltd and Vinay Kumar Thakur, Proprietor M/s Audio Video Centre in purchase scam.
Professor Hemla Aggarwal had purchased I-Mac system software on exorbitant rates without any requisition for the same made by the concerned faculty of the college. The purchase was made in violation of the codal formalities and even the software of the system, namely Final Cut Plugging, Edius-4 Conopus and Adobe Master Collection CS3, were not found available in the system.
The verification revealed that Jagdish Kumar received the bill of I-Mac system and its accessories from Principal and entered the same in the Stock Register which were duly attested by the latter. However, the system was not received in physical form but received after two months, without verifying the originality of the software purchased for I-Mac System.
As reflected from the charge-sheet, the I-Mach System was in fact already lying with Dr Hemla Aggarwal since 2008 and the software was loaded on the system prior to date of purchase/billing of the same at Govt SPMR College of Commerce, Jammu. She with dishonest intention hatched a conspiracy with the co-accused Jia Lal who was then posted as Accountant in the same college, mooted a proposal without any requisition from any department of the college and without following the codal formalities purchased the I-Mac System.
She also got the system verified from Rajinder Kumar Raina, a non-technical person of the Doordarshan Kendra, Jammu, passed the bills and made payment to the dealers at New Delhi—Sunil Malik, Proprietor M/s Sun Broadcast Equipments Pvt Ltd and Vinay Kumar Thakur, Proprietor M/s Audio Video Centre through Bhavnish Sachdeva, the then Senior Manager of M/s Sun Broadcast Equipments Pvt. Ltd. thereby causing loss to the tune of Rs 4,05,600 which includes Rs 78,000 for Final Cut Plugging, Rs 46,800 for Edius 4 Canopus, Rs 1,40,400 for Adobe Master Collection CS3 and Rs 1,40,400 for I-Mac Gfx Workstation.
After hearing APP Irshad Ahmed Sheikh for the ACB, Special Judge Anticorruption observed, “material on record prima-facie gives presumption of guilt of the accused and sufficiently connects the accused with the commission of the offences as mentioned in the charge-sheet”.
“Law is very well settled in context of stage of hearing on the charge that the court has not to examine the evidentiary value of the documents produced by the prosecution at this stage nor the evidence collected by the investigating agency is to be scrutinized in the same manner as is required for recording conviction or acquittal of an accused”, the Special Judge said, adding “however, at the same time law does not permit the court to act as the post office and treat every word of the prosecution as gospel truth and frame charges against the accused”.
“Law has put an onerous duty on the court to apply its mind to the material on record, independently of the accusations drawn by the prosecution and has to come to its own conclusion based on prima-facie appreciation of the material”, the court said.
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