Delhi court orders corruption charges against 2 CBI officials

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has ordered the framing of corruption and criminal conspiracy charges against two Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials, including a deputy superintendent of police (DSP), for allegedly compromising investigations in certain cases in exchange for “extraneous pecuniary consideration”. According to news agency PTI, special judge Atul Krishna Agrawal, in an order passed on Saturday, also discharged a CBI inspector and a private company, observing that there was insufficient evidence against them and that the allegations against the inspector amounted to “suspicion but not grave suspicion”. According to the CBI, DSP R K Rishi, Inspector Kapil Dhanked and Selection Grade-II (SG-II) official Samir Kumar Singh allegedly conspired with two private individuals and others to compromise the integrity of investigations in several cases for monetary benefits. The agency had filed a chargesheet against Rishi, Dhanked, Singh and M/s Frost International Ltd under provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. The court said, "At the outset, it is pertinent to mention that though one of the prime allegations of the CBI in the present case is that of acceptance of bribe amount by accused 1 (Rishi) from different persons and distributing it among accused 2 (Dhanked) and accused 3 (Singh) for getting unlawful favours from those persons, there is no witness to that effect." The judge noted that no recovery of alleged bribe money had been made from any of the accused and said the prosecution’s case was “quite weak” on that aspect. The court also rejected the alleged confessional statements of Dhanked and Singh, holding that they carried no evidentiary value. Referring to allegations against Singh, the court observed that he allegedly helped the DSP by providing confidential information related to matters pending investigation before the CBI. In return, he allegedly received illegal gratification. Among the entities whose information was allegedly shared with Rishi was Frost International Ltd. The court further noted that Singh’s bank account reflected cash deposits of more than Rs 4 lakh within a short period in April 2019, along with additional deposits of around Rs 1.5 lakh in November that year."Hence, it is for accused three to explain the source of the cash received and deposited by him since public servants are invariably not permitted to deal in cash transactions in excess of Rs 20,000 or make cash deposits and the said practice is discouraged."These are serious allegations and cannot be discarded at the stage of charge. Hence, in my considered opinion, there is sufficient material on record to frame charges against accused 3 for the offences punishable under IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) read with section 381 (theft by clerk or servant of property in possession of master)...," the judge said. The court also directed framing of charges against Singh under the Prevention of Corruption Act, observing that he had allegedly accessed confidential documents without the knowledge or approval of the department head, which amounted to “theft of information”. Similar charges were also ordered to be framed against Rishi. However, the court discharged Dhanked, saying there was no money trail linking him to the allegations and that the case against him “realms on the border of suspicion but not grave suspicion, so as to frame charges”. Frost International Ltd was also discharged, with the court observing that the allegations against the company were based only on assumptions, presumptions and the alleged confessional statement of Dhanked, which was not admissible in law.