: A Delhi court has rejected a CBI plea to close a corruption case against an Inspector of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC).
Refusing to accept the closure report, Special Judge Gurdeep Singh asked the CBI to further investigate the case and place the documents before the sanctioning authority for prosecution. The charges against the officer, Pradeep Singh, are that that he had demanded a bribe of Rs. 20,000 from the complainant in the case, Vinod Kumar Monga, for mutation of a property in Defence Colony in South Delhi in 2015.
During the conversation between the complainant and the accused, the latter had demanded Rs.18,000 by making entries in his calculator, and when the complainant requested him to reduce the amount, the officer had brought it down to Rs.17,500 and showed it to him on the calculator.
Thereafter, the complainant gave his consent to it. A shadow witness had heard the conversation between the two and saw the accused having a calculator, the complaint said.
A CBI team had allegedly recovered the bribe amount from the accused’s office.
However, the CBI in its closure report said that the transcript of the conversation did not reveal any verbal demand or acceptance of the bribe amount by the accused. The investigating agency also said that the conduct of the complainant appeared objectionable and suspicious.
Urging the court to close the case, the CBI stated that for the unbecoming acts of the accused, a major penalty had been recommended against him.
Rejecting the CBI plea, the Judge said: “The conclusion reached by CBI on the basis of conduct of the complainant may not be correct in the face of evidence on record. Therefore let the case be further investigated.’’
