Demand of money by JU official
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 24: Special Judge Anticorruption Jammu Tahir Khurshid Raina today rejected the closure report of Vigilance Organization Jammu (now ACB) in FIR No. 04/2007 and directed SSP ACB Jammu to go for further investigation into the case and submit the report within two months.
On 12-05-2008, the Vigilance Organization, Jammu (VOJ) presented a closure report in terms of Section 173(3) CrPC in case FIR No. 04/2007 titled State Vs Dr Falendra K Sudan (Reader, Department of Economics, University of Jammu. As per the report prepared by SSP VOJ, Jammu, the case was not proved against the accused.
The court, while concurring with the findings of the VOJ, accepted the closure report and ordered the case to be closed as not proved on 17-05-2008. Feeling aggrieved of this order, the complainant in the case challenged the same before the High Court, which vide its order dated 15-02-2022 set aside the order and directed the Special Judge Anti-corruption Court to accord consideration to the closure report filed by the Vigilance Organization in FIR No. 04 of 2007 afresh after affording an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner.
In pursuant to the direction of the High Court, the complainant was put on notice to appear before this court in the case at hand. Finally, she appeared before the court on 03-07-2022 and revealed at length all those facts whereby an amount of Rs 20,000 was demanded from her by her supervisor, the accused, for meeting the expenses of the visit of the external expert for conducting her viva and also to present gift to him.
She brought this matter in the notice of the Vigilance Organization, Jammu, which gave her a diary containing audio recorder for recording whole deal wherein the accused agreed to take first installment of Rs 5000. She did the same and got the whole conversation recorded between him and her regarding the mode of payment. Later, she handed over CD of the recorded voice to the VO. However, the accused, along with his friend Prof Jasbir Singh managed the closure of case by the VOJ.
Special Judge Anticorruption Jammu Tahir Khurshid Raina observed, “a very crucial piece of evidence, which is the part of the charge sheet is CD, based on the alleged recorded voice of the accused”, adding “it contains pre-trap conversation between her and the accused, wherein he is demanding the money. Fact remains that when this recording was made by the very instrument provided by the VOJ itself to the complainant, then why the IO ignored the same and did not get its veracity tested by the FSL”.
“It was an important piece of evidence which stands ignored by the IO in formulating his opinion in the case. What a shallow understanding of the concept of demand and acceptance shown by the IO of the case in the closure report on the basis of which he closed the case as not proved against the accused”, the court further observed.
“It is very surprising that on one hand the IO has concluded the case as not proved against the accused and on the other hand has stated that it stands established in the investigation that such a practice is going on in the University whereby students are being told to arrange money as per their capacity for looking after the outsider examiner”, the court said, adding “if any illegal practice was going on in the Jammu University over the years as observed in the closure report itself, then how come the accused was allowed to go scot-free who has prima-facie made a demand of payment of Rs 20,000”.
With these observations, court rejected the closure report and returned to the SSP, Vigilance Organization, Jammu, (now ACB – Jammu) with a direction to go for further investigation into the case and submit the report within two months.
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