Court discharges CPWD officer, wife in DA case

A Delhi court has discharges an officer of CPWD and his wife in a disproportionate assets case lodged against them by CBI, saying the wealth was less than 10 per cent of his income and pulled up the investigating officer for a casual approach in the probe.
Special CBI Judge Parveen Singh said the charge of possessing pecuniary resources or property disproportionate to the known sources of income was not made out against Atul Ranjan, an Assistant Engineer in Central Public Works Department(CPWD).
The court also discharged his wife Jyoti Srivastava of the charge of abetting the offence.
"... I must dutifully observe that the investigating officer has been very casual in dealing these (bank) entries. He has submitted that these errors crept in because of the wrong information given by the bank officer who had been examined by him.

"This is a lame explanation because as the IO, he was duty-bound to independently evaluate the evidence and reach his own conclusion," the judge said.
The court also said that the investigating officer was also "casual" in the manner he calculated the income of Jyoti.

It said the assets acquired by Ranjan during check period were in excess of his savings but these disproportionate assets were Rs 10,19,306 and was only 9.5 per cent of his total income.
"In view of this, I find that as the disproportionate assets are found to be less than 10 per cent, no presumption can be raised against the accused and they cannot be charged under the provision of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The accused are accordingly discharged," the judge said.

The court added that even the check period taken by CBI was very long i.E. 28 years.
According to the prosecution, Delhi resident Ranjan had joined CPWD as a junior engineer in March 1981 and was later promoted as an Assistant Engineer in January 2008.
It alleged that from March 1981 to December 2009, Ranjan was found in possession of assets worth over Rs 21 lakh which was disproportionate to his known sources of income and for which he could not give a satisfactory explanation.
He was chargesheeted for the offence punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act. CBI also alleged that his wife Jyoti had abetted her husband to commit offence of criminal misconduct.