ALLAHABAD: Recently, Allahabad High Court Quashed Criminal Proceedings against an accused Bhavesh Jain booked under UP Jal Nigam Recruitment Scam.
The Bench headed by Justice Vikas Kunvar Srivastav observed that the complaint and the charge sheet submitted against Bhavesh Jain did not disclose the commission of any cognizable offence under the relevant sections of the I.P.C.
The case against the accused contained allegations of certain irregularities in the recruitment of candidates to 1300 posts of the R.G.C.’s, J.E.’s, and A.E.’s advertised by the U.P. Jal Nigam in the year 2016-2017.
As per the case of the prosecution, the investigation into the alleged Recruitment scam was done by Special Investigation Team on a complaint filed against him.
The Chairman of the Jal Nigam and others had unauthorizedly approved the proposal of the Managing Director and the Officer-on-Special Duty for conducting the examination of Assistant Engineer and Junior Engineer and for conducting the examination of Clerks and Stenographers through M/s Aptech Ltd, Mumbai without the recommendation of Jal Nigam Board.
The case was filed against the accused that he had conducted the selection without taking prior approval of the Board of Jal Nigam or the State Government causing a loss of Rs.37.5 Lacs to the State Exchequer and also violating of rules and regulations of the Jal Nigam including the U.P. Water Supply and Sewerage Act, 1975.
An FIR was also registered in the case in the year 2018 under Sections 409, 420, 120-B, 201 I.P.C., and Section 13 (1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Azam Khan and co-accused persons on the allegations of irregular recruitment/appointment.
However, in the Court, the accused plea that his role was confined to programming, Software, and website development, which are purely technical in nature, and he had no role in setting the question papers, tabulation of scores, preparation of merit list, etc.
Later, the court observed that the applicant, Jain was a mid-level employee of the Aptech group which was hired by U.P. Jal Nigam for the limited purpose of organizing the infrastructure for conducting the Computer Based Test (C.B.T) for the recruitment under the contract executed between U.P. Jal Nigam and Aptech.
“The role and responsibility with which the present accused applicant is entrusted has nowhere his access to the primary datas filled in the prescribed fields of the website, therefore, in the absence of a culpable role no offence under Section 420 I.P.C. said to have been made out,” the Court observed.
In view of the above facts and discussions, the Court added, the impugned summoning order dated 9.9.2021 passed by the learned Special Court, Anti-corruption, C.B.I. Central, Lucknow is set aside to the extent of the applicant “Bhavesh Jain”.
The court quashed all the orders passed in furtherance whereof and the entire subsequent proceedings in Sessions Case under Sections 201, 204, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B I.P.C. and Section 66 of the I.T Act, 2000 against Jain.
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