NEW DELHI, Jan 19:
A special court has pulled up the CBI for “unfair” probe and acting in an “arbitrary and unreasonable manner” against a DRI officer, as it acquitted him of charges of demanding and accepting bribe from an exporter against whom an excise duty evasion case was lodged.
The court absolved Y S Verma, a former senior intelligence officer with Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), and one Mahender Kumar of charges of criminal conspiracy and accepting illegal remuneration and criminal misconduct by public servant.
Special CBI Judge Anu Grover Baliga said there were material contradictions in the depositions of the prosecution’s star witnesses and an audio cassette produced during trial, with the probe agency “absolutely failing” to establish the guilt of the accused.
“The contention of this accused (Verma) and Kumar that the investigation in the present case has been done in a completely unfair manner, appears to have much merit and in view of the material brought on record during trial, this court is constrained to observe that the investigating agency does appear to have acted in an arbitrary and unreasonable manner,” the court said.
The court had in 2012 discharged Verma in the case due to lack of proper sanction to prosecute him. It, however, had given liberty to CBI to file fresh charge sheet after getting the requisite sanction from the competent authority. (PTI)
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