E-Paper
FCI scam: DGM’s discharge application dismissed
CBI had arrested Mishra, who has a permanent residence in New Delhi; Satish Verma, manager at an FCI Lab in Chandigarh, and Ravinder Singh Khaira, owner of Guru Kripa Rice and Agro Industries, for giving and accepting the bribe.
A special CBI court has dismissed a discharge application filed by Rajiv Kumar Mishra, DGM, quality control/personnel, Food Corporation of India (FCI), Chandigarh, one of the accused in a ₹50,000 bribe case from January this year.
CBI had arrested Mishra, who has a permanent residence in New Delhi; Satish Verma, manager at an FCI Lab in Chandigarh, and Ravinder Singh Khaira, owner of Guru Kripa Rice and Agro Industries, for giving and accepting the bribe.
The arrests were made as part of a probe into a larger FCI scam unearthed by CBI.
An FIR was registered on January 10 in New Delhi against 74 people and entities, including 34 serving and three retired officers of the FCI, 17 private individuals, 20 rice mills and grain merchants, and raids were launched at over 50 locations in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi as a corruption racket involving FCI officials of various ranks, rice millers, grain merchants and middlemen in the procurement, storage and distribution of foodgrains across several parts of north India was uncovered.
Mishra had filed the discharge application on August 17, contending that he had been falsely implicated in this case. Neither was a preliminary inquiry conducted by CBI nor were the allegations verified, it was alleged.
“There is no allegation in the challan and the documents whether the bribe was ever given to the applicants and if given, then for what purpose. The prosecution has not been able to make out any prima facie case against the accused. The sanction to prosecute the applicant was granted in a mechanical manner and without application of mind, and as such the applicant in the present case deserves to the discharged,” the plea said.
Opposing it, CBI submitted that the discharge application deserved dismissal. The agency said Mishra, in the presence of two independent witnesses, had confessed to accepting ₹50,000 from the co-accused and the money was recovered from the office bag in his car.
It added that on the day of trap, the applicant was on leave and had attended office only to obtain the bribe amount.
Taking note of the oral and documentary evidence provided by the prosecution, the court observed that they had been able to make out a prima facie case against the accused. Finding no merit in Mishra’s plea, the court dismissed it.
