Corruption charges framed in 2002 fail to stick

Nineteen years after a case was registered for allegedly defrauding a cooperative bank and ten years after charges of corruption, cheating and criminal conspiracy were framed against six persons by a court here in 2002, a special CBI court here has come to the conclusion that the bank was a private one and the accused were not public servants and hence Prevention of Corruption Act charges could not be made out against them.

As a result, the Special Court which has jurisdiction over the PC Act has now sent the case to a Metropolitan Magistrate to continue the trial against the six persons for criminal conspiracy to cheat the bank.

Special Judge V. K. Maheshwari said there was no averment in the charge sheet that Parishad Co-operative Bank, Karol Bagh, was receiving or had ever received any financial aid from the Central Government or the State Government or was under the authority of a body owned or controlled by the Government.

“Undoubtedly, Parishad Co-operative Bank was a private bank in which only the members of co-operative society can open their accounts or obtain loan etc according to its by-laws,” Mr. Maheshwari said.

The Judge said the prosecution had failed to prove that two of the accused were public servants.

“As such, none of the accused was a public servant at the time of commission of this offence. Therefore, this court of Special Judge has no jurisdiction to conduct the trial of this case. Hence, no fruitful purpose will be served in entering the merit of this case without jurisdiction,” the court said.

“In these circumstances, when none of the accused was a public servant at the time of commission of this offence, the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act are not applicable to any of the accused because according to the Act a Special Judge, duly notified, is empowered to conduct the trial of only those cases which are punishable under section PC Act and any conspiracy to commit or any attempt to commit or any abatement of any of the offence specified under PC Act,” Mr. Maheshwari added.