Shivani Gadhavi
Published On: November 19, 2021 at 21:45 IST
A Delhi Court criticized the Central Bureau of Investigation for not filing a chargesheet against three workers of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) who meddled with the telephone exchange switches which provided ISD/STD facilities free of cost to some private people saying that it was a contradiction on part of the agency.
The CBI mentioned that some of the workers of MTNL plotted a scheme with two private persons namely- Vimal Dutt and Manoj, to cause the company a financial loss of around Rs. 6.33 lakh.
The CBI stated that some workers of MTNL illegally meddled with the telephone exchange switches and lines and that free ISD/STD facilities were given to the aforementioned private persons through a telephone number which was not allotted on anybody’s name.
“This illegal tampering of the switches ensured that the ISD/STD services from the above telephone numbers were availed without any billing in this regard,” the Delhi Court noted and stated, “These facts made this evidently clear that MTNL could have been cheated by the private persons without active connivance of the MTNL employees, but still no chargesheet under Prevention of Corruption Act was filed by the CBI.”
Special Judge Surinder S Rathi instructed the CBI to submit a detailed report explaining the matter with police files and other records to the Court. It has been observed by the court that even though CBI had registered the FIR yet the chargesheet was not filed before a special judge instead it was filed with a Metropolitan Magistrate .
The Court stated that even after arresting the three workers of MTNL, the arrested persons were neither named in the chargesheet nor designated as accused and that the CBI did not submit the final report for trial with want of sufficient amount of evidence , which was self contradictory on the part of CBI .
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