Delhi court acquits scientist in graft case

A scientist-cum-textile engineer has been acquitted by a court in New Delhi of the charge of accepting bribe for clearing a sample of electrical cables relating to Indo-Pak border lightning project.

Special Judge Pradeep Chaddah said the CBI case does not "generate confidence" as the "holes in the evidence are too big and unbridgeable" to prove the charges of accepting a bribe of Rs 5,000 against Avinash Kumar, a scientist and Textile Engineer at the National Test House at Ghaziabad.

"The holes in the evidence are too big and unbridgeable... the story of the prosecution does not generate confidence. Accused was a qualified textile engineer and had apparently nothing to do with testing of electric cables.

"This leads me to hold that CBI has failed to prove its case under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act beyond all shadows of doubt," the judge said while acquitting Kumar.

According to the CBI, Kumar had allegedly demanded a sum of Rs 7,500 from the complainant R S Guleria in 1994 to give his approval to a sample of the electric cables belonging to a company which was being represented by the complainant's firm.

During the trial, Guleria had told the court that an approval from National Test house was necessary to procure an order for an Indo-Pak border flood lightning project.

He had alleged that Kumar had agreed to accept Rs 5,000, after he had negotiated with him.

During the trial, CBI had claimed that it had caught the accused red handed while accepting the bribe from Guleria in New Delhi on July 16, 1994.

Kumar had argued in the court that since he was a textile engineer he had nothing to do with the testing of electric cables and he had been falsely implicated in the case.

The court, however, acquitted Kumar by giving him the benefit of doubt after going through the evidence produced before it by the CBI.