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‘Juniors blamed for lapses by seniors’: Court lets off three employees of Haryana agri board
The Haryana agri board employees were booked in 2014 for not informing the authorities of an HC order before seeking approval for sale of plots in Cheeka, Haryana, in February 2014
Coming down heavily on senior officers of the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board (HSAMB) for conveniently blaming juniors for their lapses, a Panchkula court has acquitted three board employees accused of cheating, criminal conspiracy and disappearance of evidence in 2014.
Yuvraj Gambhir, Kulwant Singh (contractual employee) and Rajender Kumar Sharma (now retired) were booked on the complaint of Ashok Kumar, superintendent, complaint and enquiry branch, HSAMB, since retired, in December 2014.
A case under Sections 380 (theft), 420 (cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code was registered against them at the Sector-5 police station following a complaint to the DCP’s office.
Now, while acquitting them, the court of chief judicial magistrate, Panchkula, Nitin Raj, has also issued a show-cause notice to the then superintendent of the board, asking why he should not be ordered to pay ₹1 lakh each as compensation to the trio.
The court has also directed the Haryana home secretary to look into the matter and take appropriate action against the investigating officer.
The CJM observed, “The case file establishes an unholy nexus between officers of the HSAMB and the investigating agency to conveniently save officers who were responsible for lapses from penal action under IPC and to implicate junior-level officials despite not being responsible in the matter and getting FIR lodged against them under IPC.”
It added, “Interestingly, the accused were not proceeded against by way of any departmental action by the HSAMB.”
The case
In the complaint to the Panchkula DCP in 2014, Ashok Kumar had alleged that while seeking approval for the sale of plots auctioned by the Market Committee, Cheeka, on February 11, 2014, the said staff did not bring the high court’s order to the notice of the competent authority.
Thus, approval was accorded by the office of the HSAMB chief administrator without any knowledge of the court order.
In the HC order, it was recorded that “the auction of the plots in the New Grain Market shall be without any prejudice to the rights of the petitioners. The claim of the petitioners shall be decided before the confirmation of the auction.”
Later, when the issue was flagged by the petitioners, a four-member committee was formed, which suggested legal action against the three employees in November 2014.
Rajender’s counsel Ashwani Chaudhary said justice had been delivered after six years: “We had submitted all documentary evidence to prove that they were innocent.”
What the court said
This is a “classic example” where the higher authorities conveniently trample upon the life and liberty of the subordinate staff having lower ranks so as to wriggle out of inconvenient position and circumstances safely. However, it is the beauty of criminal jurisprudence that how so ever high you may be, the law is always above you.
The manner in which the said inquiry report was used for invoking penal provisions against the accused without any basis and cogent material is “absurd and unfathomable. Ashok Kumar, without any application of mind and despite knowing that there is no material on record and reasonable cause, filed the complaint against the accused, observed the court.
