Thursday, February 6, 2020

17 years on, 2 IPS officers get clean chit

Chennai:06.02.2020

Two criminal appeals filed by two IPS officers and pending in the Madras high court for 17 years, were finally disposed of on Wednesday, when the court trashed a sessions court order convicting the officers under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Justice M Dhandapani, acquitting E Hariharane (since deceased) and G Veeraraghavan, who had both served as directorsgeneral of police, fire services department, between May 1989 and July 1992, said: “The trial court totally got carried away by the figures portrayed than by the materials, in black and white, available before it to come to a reasonable and justifiable conclusion. Therefore, left with no alternative, this court is inclined to set aside the conviction and sentence recorded by the trial court as being devoid of any merit.”

The prosecution had alleged that the two officers had incurred a pecuniary loss of ₹1.77 crore and ₹31.56 lakh to the exchequer in the purchase of pumps, construction of emergency rescue tender and purchase of high capacity portable pumps. It said the officers floated and finalised tenders and awarded the contract in breach of not only the tender conditions, but also giving a go-by to specifications, thereby facilitating pecuniary advantage to the supplier. It said the conspiracy was hatched by the officers between May 1989 and July 1992. TNN

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