Defence officer acquitted in Tehelka sting case

A Defence Ministry official, who was caught on camera taking a bribe of Rs. 10,000 from a sham representative of a fictitious company during a sting operation by news website Tehelka.com in 2001, has been acquitted by a court here. The officer, Narender Singh, was an Assistant Financial Advisor in the Finance Division of the Defence Ministry at the time of the sting operation.

Acquitting him of the charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act, Special Judge Ramesh Kumar said: “There is nothing on record file to show that Narender Singh had, at any point of time, given any favour or disfavour to any person so as to attract Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.”

CBI had charged that Mr. Singh had accepted illegal gratification of Rs.10,000 in 2000-01 as a reward from Mathew Samuel, correspondent of the news portal for showing favour to him and his fictitious firm M/s West End International for facilitating and placing of order in favour of his firm for procurement of defence equipment like Hand Held Thermal Imager.

The reporter had gone to meet the officer masquerading as the Chief Liaison officer of the fictitious company.

However, the court dismissed the charges against him saying that “there is nothing on the record file to show that he had taken any gratification for exercising personal influence to show favour or disfavour to any person.”

“Since there is no demand on behalf of the accused, no criminal misconduct can be imputed to him. No criminal liability can be fastened in the absence of positive demand by accused Narender Singh from Mathew Samuel,” the court said.

Mr. Samuel, deposing as a prosecution witness, said, “he was associated with Tehelka.com and had carried out a sting called ‘Operation Westend’ in which fictitious firm M/s West End International was created to expose how suitcase-people were compromising with Indian Defence. It was a journalistic operation.”

The officer was an Assistant Financial Advisor in the Finance Division of the Defence Ministry at the time of the sting operation