NEW DELHI Apr 13: A Defence Ministry official, who was accused of taking Rs 10,000 as bribe to favour a fictitious private firm in a defence deal sting, has been acquitted by a Delhi court which said no criminal liability can be imputed to him.
The court absolved Narender Singh, who was an Assistant Financial Advisor in the Defence Ministry and was later suspended, of charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
It said the evidence produced by CBI was “not sufficient enough” to convict Singh in the case.
“There is nothing on record file to show that Narender Singh had, at any point of time, given any favour or disfavour to any person so as to attract Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act,” Special CBI Judge Ramesh Kumar said.
“Further, there is nothing on the record file to show that he had taken any gratification for exercising personal influence to show favour or disfavour to any person. Since, there is no demand on behalf of the accused, no criminal misconduct can be imputed to him. No criminal liability can be fastened in the absence of positive demand by the accused, Narender Singh from Mathew Samuel,” the court said.
According to CBI, Singh had accepted illegal gratification of Rs 10,000 in 2000-01 as a reward from Mathew Samuel, correspondent of news portal Tehelka.Com, for showing favour to him and his fictitious firm M/s West End International for facilitating and placing of order in favour of his firm for procurement of defence equipments like Hand Held Thermal Imagers.
CBI alleged that Singh had taken illegal gratification for showing favour to Samuel and his firm by inducing his higher authorities by exercising his personal influence.
Samuel, deposing as a prosecution witness, said he was associated with Tehelka.Com and had carried out a sting called ‘Operation Westend’, in which fictitious firm M/s Westend International was created to expose how ‘suitcase people’ or middlemen were compromising Indian Defence.
During the trial, Singh denied all the incriminating evidence, claiming he had been falsely implicated in the case and that he had not done nothing wrong.
The court, in its 71-page judgement, said none of the CBI witnesses have been able to show that there was any demand for gratification by Singh.
“Further, it has not been proved that accused Narender Singh had, at any point of time, helped Mathew Samuel in any manner, while working as public servant.
“Nothing has come in the evidence of any of the witness that accused Narender Singh was instrumental in demanding Rs 10000 from Mathew Samuel,” it said.
The court also said the authenticity of the tape as well as the cassettes alleged to have been recorded on behalf of news portal Tehelka.Com was “doubtful”. (PTI)
It said the recording of cassettes by Samuel does not inspire the confidence of this court as he was an interested witness and he was interested in getting Singh’s conviction.
“Even otherwise, there is nothing on the record file to show that any demand being made by Singh, is being shown in any of the cassettes…
“There is nothing in any of the cassettes recorded by Samuel to show that Singh was demanding any amount from him. Further, there is nothing in any of the cassettes to show that Singh had given any assurance to help Samuel regarding the procurement of HHTI by the Army,” it said, adding, cassettes recorded by Samuel cannot be given much weightage here.
The judge said that “possibility of tampering or doctoring of the cassettes cannot be ruled out” as they had remained in the custody of Tehelka.Com for a considerable long time. (PTI)
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