A Delhi court has accepted a closure report filed by CBI in a case pertaining to bribery charges against a senior Income Tax (IT) official, saying no evidence of demand of illegal gratification was found.
Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma said co-accused Pramod Agarwal, owner of M/s Rama Paper Mills Ltd, has categorically denied that illegal gratification had been demanded by accused senior IT officer Kunal Singh or that the six gold biscuits found in his possession were meant for fulfilling bribe demand of Singh.
"In view of the same, I agree with the conclusion of CBI that during the course of investigation no evidence of demand of illegal gratification by Kunal Singh could be substantiated and thus there is no evidence on record in respect of demand, acceptance and recovery on part of Singh," the judge said while accepting the closure report filed by IO of the case relating to both Singh and Agarwal.
The court also took into consideration a letter written by Agarwal to the CBI Director on December 30, 2013, saying that Singh had not demanded illegal gratification from him and the gold found in his possession on the date of raid, i.E. June 3, 2012 was not meant to be given to Singh as bribe on his demand but for the purpose of engagement of his daughter in June 2012.
The court noted that in his letter Agarwal had claimed that he had friendly relations with Singh as he used to live in his neighbourhood and he had gone to meet him as a friend on June 3, 2012 and for the purpose of safety he had kept the gold biscuits in his pocket since he did not want to leave them unattended in his car.
The court also said there is no "intercepted conversation in possession of CBI to prove the content of conversation between Agarwal and Singh to substantiate the earlier stand taken by him Agarwal that he had taken the gold biscuits to fulfil demand of illegal gratification of Singh".
According to CBI, during the investigation of an earlier case lodged against Singh who was posted as Director (investigation) of IT department in Kanpur, a trap was laid by CBI and a raid was conducted at his house in Delhi on June 3, 2012.
