Vijay Dahiya case: Panchkula court rejects ACB plea for making co-accused approver

Tribune News Service

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Chandigarh, April 16

A Panchkula court has dismissed an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) application for making a co-accused approver in the corruption case against Haryana IAS officer Vijay Singh Dahiya, a 2001 batch officer posted as Commissioner and Secretary to the state government, Archives Department.

‘Rs 13 Lakh bribe paid to Dahiya’

The co-accused maintained in his statement under Section 164, CrPC, that Rs 13 lakh was paid as bribe to Dahiya by training institutes through him

The case against him is related to allegedly taking bribes to clear bills during his posting as Commissioner and Secretary, Youth Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Department.

Complainant Rinku Manchanda, a resident of Fatehabad, has been running an education institution Gramin Shiksha for the past 10 years to impart training in computer, AC technician, beauty parlour, etc. to poor students under the Haryana Skill Development Mission. He had been trying to get his payments worth Rs 50 lakh cleared for the past three years, but in vain.

According to the ACB, Chief Skill Officer (CSO) Deepak Sharma, an employee of the Haryana Skill Development Mission, allegedly told Manchanda to meet Poonam Chopra, a resident of Delhi, for clearance of bills. Chopra told him that she would talk to Dahiya.

Chopra then allegedly demanded Rs 5 lakh bribe from Manchanda, following which he paid Rs 2 lakh. The ACB claims that she also forwarded the WhatsApp messages of Dahiya, wherein it was stated that he had cleared the payment files.

Manchanda approached the ACB and an FIR was registered. The ACB laid the trap on April 20, 2023, and caught Chopra while taking a bribe of Rs 3 lakh. Later, a chargesheet was filed against him, and he was arrested on October 10, 2023.

In January, the ACB approached the court to make Deepak Sharma an approver in the case and for pardoning him. It told the court that Sharma had admitted to having demanded Rs 5 lakh from Manchanda after consulting Dahiya. When the bills were not cleared, he had asked him to meet Chopra.

The ACB informed the court that in a statement under Section 164, CrPC (a statement before a Magistrate), Sharma had deposed to have accepted, at the behest of Dahiya and delivered at his residence, Rs 13 lakh as bribe from different training partners.

Counsel for Dahiya, DS Chawla, opposed the ACB application, alleging that it was favouring Sharma.

The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge PK Lal ruled that only an accomplice, a partner in crime, could become an approver. The order added that in his anticipatory bail application before the high court, Sharma contended that he made his statement under Section 164 under pressure of the investigating agency on the pretext that he would become an approver.

The court concluded that Sharma’s willingness to become approver was “just an attempt to save his own skin from the consequences of the case” and the application moved by the ACB was “without any justification”.

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