Court acquits former DDA official in corruption case

A court here Thursday acquitted Delhi Development Authority's former land disposal commissioner Anand Mohan Sharan in case of owning disproportionate assets.

Central Bureau of Investigation Special Judge Manoj Jain acquitted Sharan and his father Krishan Mohan Sharan, a retired Indian Railway official, of the charges of criminal conspiracy and various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Sharan, a 1990 batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Haryana cadre, was charged by the CBI in 2003 of entering into a criminal conspiracy with private builders and allotting them space in a DDA project below the market rate. At that time, he was serving in DDA.

The court said: "The prosecution has not been able to place sufficient material before the court to nail them (Sharan and his father) down under any penal charge. Any uncultivated and distant likelihood cannot be a substitute of concrete proof which is always required to bring home the guilt in any serious criminal trial like this."

The CBI has alleged that Sharan till 1991, did not have any significant or noticeable assets, but later he acquired a residential flat in Gurgaon and disproportionate assets amounting to Rs.45 lakh.

It further said that his father had actively connived with him to fabricate false evidence for the purpose of legitmising ill-gotten money.