Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 27: In view of inordinate delay in completion of ongoing preliminary investigation into the much publicised double drawal of petrol/diesel allegedly by the Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand and his personal staff, the Court of Special Judge Anti-Corruption today directed the State Vigilance Organization (SVO) to specifically indicate on next date of hearing as to how much time they will be requiring for finalizing the investigation.
When the case came up for hearing before the Court of Special Judge Anticorruption, Advocate S S Ahmed appearing for the applicant submitted that some timeframe be given to the investigating agency for completion of preliminary investigation otherwise the inquiry may drag for unlimited period.
After hearing the submission of Advocate S S Ahmed and going through the status report filed by the Vigilance Organization, the Special Judge Anti-corruption Court, Puneet Gupta observed, “the investigating agency has already taken more than eight months in the matter. It is evident from the status report submitted by the Chief Prosecuting Officer that verification from various departments is still going on and it will take some more time to complete the preliminary investigation in the matter”.
“From the status report it is made out that the records from concerned departments are being scanned and some more record is required to be obtained and scrutinized in the case”, the Special Judge Anti-corruption said, adding “the court cannot direct the manner in which the investigation is required to be carried out in the case but the court can monitor the progress of the investigation”.
The Court further said, “as the verification in the matter is in progress as per the status report and some record is to be scrutinized, the court is required to be informed of the progress further made by the investigating agency by the next date”, adding “the investigating officer shall state the period by which he shall be able to complete the preliminary investigation in case the preliminary investigation is not completed by the next date—July 20, 2013”.
Some of the paragraphs of the status report, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR, indicate that on March 1, 2010 Jammu Municipal Corporation issued 30 litres of POL in favour of vehicle No. JK02H-1998 but the perusal of its log book reveals that the vehicle has consumed 820.9 litres of POL during the period from December 2009 to June 2010. However, nothing is recorded in the log book that which department/organization has issued POL in favour of the vehicle.
“During the course of verification, the drivers of the vehicles were examined and they stated that POL in favour of vehicles had been issued by the Directorate of Urban and Local Bodies Jammu and Lakes and Waterways Development Authority but the records obtained from these departments are silent about issuing POL in favour of vehicle”, status report said, adding “the verification conducted so far further reveals that Housing and Urban Development Department during the period between January 2009 to November 2012 had issued 12242 litres of POL in favour of vehicle No.JK02AE-7477 whereas Jammu Municipal Corporation had also issued 585 litres of POL in favour of this vehicle but the perusal of the log book of the vehicle for the period January 2009 to July 2012 reveals that besides Housing and Urban Development and JMC, Jammu Development Authority had also issued 585 litres, Directorate of Urban Local Bodies Jammu had issued 500 litres and UEED Department 100 litres of POL in the favour of this vehicle”.
However, the reports obtained from JDA and Urban Local Bodies didn’t reflect that POL had been issued in favour of the vehicle. “The perusal of log book further reveals that a total quantity of 14169 litres of POL had been consumed by the vehicle as such it is yet to be verified that which department/organization issued 1341 litres of POL”, the status report said.
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