Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 29: High Court dismissed bail plea of Chief Engineer (CE) in gratification case by observing that different approach must be adopted in bails pertaining to corruption of enormous level.
Justice Sanjay Dhar denied bail to Sumit Khajuria who was working as Chief Engineer Konkan Railways Corporation Ltd in a bribery case.
As per the prosecution case, an information was received by the CBI, ACB Camp, Jammu that the accused Khajuria in connivance with the co-accused Rajesh Kumar Jain, Pushp Raj Jain and Sulabh Rawat, all Directors of M/s Paras Railtech Pvt. Ltd. indulged in corrupt activities to obtain bribe money in lieu of favouring the company for clearance of pending bills and revising the estimates relating to removal of tunnel muck in execution of work order related to Katra-Dharam Section of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) Project that was being supervised by Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL).
The accused Rajesh Kumar Jain was caught delivering Rs. 9,42,500 to the accused Chief Engineer as illegal gratification. A further sum of Rs. 73.11 lakh was recovered from the residential premises of CE, which the CBI claims was collected from railway contractors as bribe money.
It was further disclosed that on January 30, 2025 the accused-Jain informed the accused-CE that representatives of M/s Paras Railtech Private Limited had submitted a bill in his office and that a subordinate officer of the office had made some adverse changes/remarks regarding the bill.
On this, the CE is stated to have assured accused- Jain that he would fulfill his commitments and will do the needful in favour of M/s Paras Railtech Private Limited and asked him to meet him in his Camp Office at Jammu. According to the information, the contractor-Jain in furtherance of his commitment proceeded to meet the Chief Engineer on 08.02.2025 for delivering to him an amount of Rs. 10 lakhs (approx.) as illegal gratification.
On the basis of this information, respondent registered the FIR and proceeded to conduct investigation of the case. The trap and recovery proceedings were undertaken by the investigating agency in presence of independent witnesses. Formal arrest of the both CE and Contractor- Jain was made on 19.02.2025 and presently they are stated to be in judicial custody.
Justice Dhar has refused the bail to both the accused and said while considering grant or refusal of bail in a corruption case of huge magnitude, a different approach has to be adopted and the mere fact that the offence for which an accused is booked does not carry imprisonment for life or sentence of death does not by itself become a ground for grant of bail to the accused in such cases.
“In the present case, huge amount of cash has been recovered from the residence of the petitioner -Sumit Khajuria who has been found to be acting in conspiracy with petitioner-Rajesh Kumar Jain. The investigation, as is clear from a perusal of the Case Diary, is at a crucial stage as the investigating agency is yet to ascertain the source of the huge amount that has been recovered from the residence of petitioner-Sumit Khajuria. As per the prosecution case there is a strong suspicion that petitioner- Rajesh Kumar Jain has indulged in illegal transactions with petitioner-Sunit Khajuria in the past as well”, read the judgment.
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