Delhi High Court discharges Income Tax official charged by CBI for bribery
The Delhi High Court on Monday discharged a senior income tax official, of graft charges levelled against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly demanding bribes from the prime accused in the multi crore “Stock Guru” case.
The CBI had alleged that an officer took illegal gratification of Rs 55-60 crore from “Stock Guru” case accused Ulhas Prabhakar Khaire in exchange of an assurance that he would settle his case.
Khaire has been accused of inducing investors to invest their money in M/s Stock Guru by making false assurances. The investigators had alleged that Khaire and his wife duped investors to the tune of Rs 1,100 crore by travelling across the country and attending seminars to induce their victims. A case against Khaire was registered by the CBI in 2011.
The CBI had alleged that Khaire video recorded his conversation with the I-T Officer using a spy camera while demanding and accepting the alleged bribe. An audio clip was also recovered in the case.
Appearing on behalf of the I-T Officer, an Advocate contended that the trial court has relied upon inadmissible evidence as there is no evidence of transfer from spy-watch to the hard disk from which the videos were recorded and the same were recovered from a hard disk which also showed modification and manipulation. Aggarwal further argued that as per the CFSL report, the spy watch was found to be empty.
He further contended that the only so-called evidence against an I-T Officer was the statement of Khaire who himself is an accused and that his testimony cannot be trusted by the court.
Finding force in the contentions raised by Advocate, the Delhi High Court ruled that the material collected by CBI “is not sufficient to frame the charge” against the I-T Officer. The high court also held that “perusal of transcripts of audio & video recordings does not reflect any demand of gratification” from the accused by the I-T Officer.
The income tax officer had moved the Delhi High court against an order of the lower court of September 12, 2019, vide which the trial court had framed charges against him.
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