The Rouse Avenue Court has recently acquitted a Mother Dairy official, citing the non compliance of CBI Manual in a corruption case by the CBI. It was alleged that the accused official had demanded a bribe of Rs. 60000 from a milk distributor in 2024. Special CBI Judge Vijeta Singh Rawat on September 22 acquitted accused Sanjay Sharma, giving him the benefit of doubt. The court said that the prosecution has failed to prove its case against the accused beyond reasonable doubt. The accused is therefore acquitted of the offence punishable under Section 7 of the P.C. Act, 1988. Special Judge said that the CBI Crime Manual and, in specific, Rules 9.9, 9.17, 9.21, 11.15 and 12.25 have been ignored. “The Investigating Officer did not record the order of the Superintendent of Police through which investigation was entrusted to him or note down the registration number of the vehicles and their drivers used during verification and trap proceedings and did not record the language of the complainant,” Special Judge held in the judgment of September 22.
It is mentioned that as per Rule 6.12 of CBI (Crime) Manual, 2020, the Head of Branch will seek the permission of competent authority to register complaints (public) which are found fit for verification. Further, every complaint, registered for verification, will be assigned a Registered Complaint number and entered in the Complaint Sub Module of the CRIMES Module. “Considering therefore, that the case of the prosecution was on a specific complaint and it is not the case of the prosecution that the trap was laid in anticipation of a possible demand by some public servant, the factum that the complaint bears no endorsement of the Superintendent of Police marking it for verification and no registration number assigned to the complaint is a circumstance that lends credence to the defence raised that manipulation of evidence cannot be ruled out,” the court said. A complaint on December 27, 2024, submitted by one Firoz Malik, ‘the complainant’ (Milk Distributor for Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable (P) Ltd.
