Srinagar: The J&K High Court has dismissed a petition of a senior woman KAS officer pleading annulment of verification by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on “frivolous” complaints against her.
The woman officer alleged that she was approached by a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) of the ACB compelling her to meet him by making inappropriate advances. “The Dy SP employed threats of using the investigating agency against her in the event she does not meet his demands,” she alleged.
The ACB in its status report stated that it received about six different complaints against the woman officer and other government employees of Baramulla where the lady has been posted for most of her service.
The named complaints alleged “abuse of official position, embezzlement of the Government funds in MGNREGA, Swachh Bharat Mission, releasing payments without execution of works in Block Singhpora, taking bribe and commission for releasing payments of people under MGNREGA, diversion of government funds from intended purpose, working for some specific people, taking bribe through staff VLW, GRS, etc,” the report said.
It further said the 2011 batch woman officer “misappropriated government funds in the name of executing developmental works in her area of jurisdiction and had raised huge assets during her service career.”
They also claimed before the court that the accused lady officer was never called to the office of ACB in person during the probe of the instant verification — as such the question of her harassment does not arise at all.
Arguing through her counsel, the woman officer told the court “she cannot be subjected to unmerited and biased enquiry or investigation launched at the behest of ACB officers in colourable exercise of the official duty. The inquiry has already been closed since the lodging of the anonymous/frivolous complaint against her on 25.02.2021 as it was dispelled through the official correspondence”.
She said that certain officers of the ACB have been persistently making inappropriate demands from her and the non-fulfillment of which has resulted in the unmerited investigation launched against her.
Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul dismissed the plea of the woman saying when looked from all angles, the petition requires full-dress trial and examination of facts by this court.
“This is not the aim and objective of provisions of Section 482 CrPC, more particularly when petition on hand does not unveil any ground much less cogent or material one, to indicate that the inherent powers are to be exercised to prevent abuse of process of law and to secure ends of justice. In that view of matter, impugned FIR does not call for any interference qua petitioner and as a consequence of which, petition on hand is liable to be dismissed.
“The case in hand, when examined on the touchstone of law laid down by the Supreme Court, does not at all persuade this court to grant the relief prayed for by the petitioner in the instant petition,” the court said, adding, “It is well settled law that Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure empowers the High Court to exercise its inherent powers to prevent abuse of the process of court.”
