| Court acquits patwari, others as VOJ fails | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 5: Special Judge Anti-Corruption, Jammu, A K Koul has acquitted a patwari and his alleged tout in an alleged case of corruption as the vigilance organisation, Jammu (VOJ) failed to prove the case. Patwari Ganesh Pal Sharma and his alleged tout Balwant Raj were caught red-handed on January 12, 2010 while allegedly taking a bribe money of 3,000 from the complainant for processing the revenue papers of his land.
According to the challan, one Simrat Singh, son of Gurmukh Singh of Gokle Chack, Ramgarh, lodged a written complaint with VOJ, alleging therein that his two files were pending with the accused Patwari for entry of Virasat Intaqal in revenue records of the land situated at Gokle Chack and the issuance of income certificate. However, despite repeated requests, the patwari did not process the files and demanded Rs 3,000 as gratification from the complainant. After completion of the investigation, VOJ presented challan in the court.
The judge, after hearing the counsel for the accused, observed that the prosecution ordinarily was under legal obligation to create an uninterrupted link between the accused and the guilt but here in this case, the matter seemed to be otherwise because so many questions had remained unanswered and the doubts had not been cleared. The IO appears to have tailored the facts unmindful of the fact that his mischief could lead accused to misery if it was not noticed and the evidence of remaining witnesses was of no consequence because the star witnesses had created such a dent in the prosecution case which was irreparable.
"Generally a case based on a legitimate trap should be watertight but it has not happened so in this case at least. The defence theory appears to be more plausible than the prosecution story, which leaves the court with no option but to disbelieve the latter," the court said.
With these observations, the court dismissed the challan and acquitted the accused from the charges levelled against him. (JNF) |
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