CBI court convicts three central excise officials in 2017 corruption case

The CBI Special Court, Haryana, today convicted three central excise officials guilty in a 2017 corruption case.

Advertisement

The case was registered on February 19, 2017, for criminal conspiracy and under Prevention of Corruption Act on the complaint of Deepak Jain, proprietor of M/s Precision Components (P) Ltd, Sonepat.

The accused were Anil Kumar, Ajay Kumar, both Superintendents and Ravinder Singh Dahiya, Inspector, all from Central Excise, Audit Department, Murthal.

According to the allegations, the accused were demanding a bribe of Rs 10 lakh to adjust penalty of Rs 25-30 lakh for double billing, evasion of excise duty of scrap, over stock etc. On the complainant’s request, they reduced the bribe amount to Rs 9 lakh to be paid in two instalments of Rs 3 lakh and Rs 6 lakh. A mobile phone was also demanded by accused Anil Kumar.

A trap was laid on February 20, 2017, at the premises of Jain’s factory. All the three accused arrived in a car, called Jain outside and took him along.

As per the CBI, after taking a round in the vicinity in their vehicle, they stopped their car near the factory whereupon Jain called the CBI officials confirming the delivery of bribe money.

The trap team of CBI immediately apprehended the accused.

“Ravinder Dahiya tried to flee but was caught at a short distance from the spot by CBI officials. The bribe amount was recovered from the back pocket of driver seat cover of the accused’s car,” CBI Senior Prosecutor Harsh Mohan Singh told the court.

After the investigation, a chargesheet was filed against all three accused on July 3, 2017. During trial, the complainant was won over by the accused and turned hostile. Nevertheless, after appreciating the evidence on record and the CBI arguments led by Senior Prosecutor Harsh Mohan Singh, the CBI court at Panchkula convicted all the three for criminal conspiracy and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The quantum of sentence in the case will be pronounced on February 3.