IAS officer, father acquitted in disproportionate assets case

Former Land Disposal Commissioner of Delhi Development Authority Anand Mohan Sharan, facing trial in disproportionate assets case, was today acquitted by a Delhi court.
Special CBI Judge Manoj Jain also absolved Anand's father Krishan Mohan Sharan, a retired Indian Railway official, of the charges of criminal conspiracy and corruption under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for abusing his official position and acquiring disproportionate assets.
"The prosecution has not been able to place sufficient material before the court to nail them (Anand 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.

"Both the accused are, resultantly, given benefit of doubt and are hereby acquitted of all the charges levelled against them," the court said.
Anand, a 1990 batch IAS 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 agency had said Anand had failed to give any "suitable explanation" for the huge amount of Rs 45 lakh cash recovered from his residence.

According to CBI, Anand did not have any significant or noticeable assets in 1991. He acquired one residential flat of HOPE apartments in Gurgaon and made initial payments towards the flat on August 22, 1991.

Estimating Anand's savings, the CBI arrived at the figure of Rs 45 lakh as disproportionate assets, it had said.
It further said that Anand's father had actively connived with his son to fabricate false evidence for the purpose of legitmising ill-gotten money.