A special court here has rejected a CBI closure report and directed a further probe into a case in which two officials of Delhi’s water supply agency offered Rs.1 lakh bribe to a man for withdrawing his Right to Information (RTI) plea.
The court was hearing a case against Delhi Jal Board (DJB) engineers Sushil Kumar Jain and P.K. Sharma for offering bribe to activist Sant Ram who had sought information on submersible pumps.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed the closure report in the case stating that in such instances the Prevention of Corruption Act could not be applied since the bribe was paid to a private individual and not a public servant.
CBI Special Judge Dharmesh Sharma Saturday rejected the closure report of the probe agency and asked them to investigate the alleged role of the accused and file a detailed report.
“If the allegation in the closure report are believed, the public servants involved used corrupt or illegal means and/or also abused their positions as public servants involved and on payment of illegal gratification, they obtained for themselves valuable thing,” the court said.
The court observed that the case involved supply of information sought under the RTI and the accused sought the withdrawal of it for their pecuniary benefit.
According to Sant Ram, he filed an RTI application April 21, 2011 in the DJB and sought information regarding “submersible and the monoblock pumps” installed during the period 2004-11.
Jain contacted Sant Ram on phone several times and insisted that he should withdraw his application. He also offered the activist a bribe of Rs.1 Lakh for it.
Sant Ram registered a complaint with the CBI Sep 29, 2011. The probe agency then laid a trap and caught Jain and Sharma while offering bribe to the complainant.
