Principal’s son acquitted in corruption case

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, January 14

A local court today acquitted Munish Bhardwaj, son of the principal of Hans Raj Mahila Mahavidyalaya (HMV) College, Jalandhar, in case of cheating and corruption.

Bhardwaj was accused of demanding Rs 1.5 crore from the family of Amit Kakkar, the prime accused in the Healthyway Immigration fraud in 2011. The case of corruption and cheating was registered against him and his accomplice Gurinder on August 28, 2011, and both were acquitted today.

As per the prosecution case, Bhardwaj and Gurinder had posed as “middlemen” between the police and the judiciary and asked for money to “settle” the case. As per the FIR, Bhardwaj had told Amit’s relatives that his father was a “judge”. Amit’s father Ravi Kakkar then informed the the police and a trap was laid to nab the accused at a coffee joint in Sector 11. The police had stated that the duo came there in a Škoda car with a fake registration plate to collect Rs 70 lakh as per the deal struck earlier.

As per the police, Bhardwaj had met Ravi Kakkar on August 17, 2011 four days after Amit was apprehended in the Healthyway fraud.

Advocate Terminder Singh stated before the court that Bhardwaj was falsely implicated in the case and the then ASP Desraj was not even at the spot and made out a completely false case. “It was proved on the basis of phone call records that Bhardwaj was in Patiala on August 16, 2011, when the money is said to have exchanged hands and had also withdrawn money from an ATM there. I had also produced the CD before the court to prove my point. The then ASP Desraj overlooked all these evidences just to make a false case,” he said.

Desraj, who later became an SP, was arrested by the CBI in 2012 for taking Rs 1 lakh bribe from an SHO.