Two DDA employees acquitted in 25-year old corruption case

Two DDA employees, sentenced to one year jail term by a trial court in a 25-year old corruption case, have been acquitted by the Delhi High Court which said the complainant's version was not reliable.
Justice S P Garg, in an order, reversed the 2001 verdict of the trial court which convicted Om Prakash, a beldar, and Yogendra Singh Bhartwal, a junior engineer, for allegedly demanding bribe of Rs 200 from a man to inspect his house which was under construction 25 years ago.
"In the light of conflicting versions and suspicious features on crucial aspects, complainant's version does not appear to be wholly reliable," Garg said.

The court accepted the argument of defence lawyer Pramod Dubey that mere recovery of money was not sufficient ground to convict the accused and also that no witness was present at the time the raid was carried out.
"The complainant's testimony is lacking to prove that A-1 (Om Prakash) accepted the bribe amount with the tacit approval of A-2 (Bhartwal). No other independent public witness was associated in the investigation from the office of the accused where the alleged transaction took place.
"The prosecution was unable to establish that both A-1 and A-2 shared common intention to demand and accept the bribe amount from the complainant. Conviction of the appellants cannot be founded on the basis of inference," the bench said.

On April 5, 1988 one Gulshan Lal had moved an application to DDA for inspection of his brother-in-law's house on a plot in Rohini and the dealing clerk had given the date of April 7 for inspection.
However, on Lal's request to carry out the inspection on the same day (April 5), Om Prakash and Bhartwal had reportedly demanded a bribe of Rs 200 from him.
Anti-corruption Bureau had registered a corruption case against them under the Prevention of Corruption Act and in 2001 the trial court had convicted and sentenced them to one year-jail term for the offence.