Debangana Ray
Published on July 29, 2022 at 20:31 IST
In a quid pro quo case against Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad, the court quashed CBI’s case against Vanpic Projecys Pvt. Ltd on the ground that its court failed to provide valid reasons while passing a cognizance order against the company.
Fortunately, for the accused the court has rejected the cognizance order against one of the accused mentioned in the charge sheet, namely the company Vanpic.
According to Chief Justice of AP Ujjal Bhuyan, the CBI Court merely recorded that it had perused the charge sheet, relevant documents, office notes and citations before taking the charge sheet against vanpic projects on file.
The CJ said the CBI court, “ought to have recorded the reasons for its satisfaction about the existence of a prima facie case against the company or its chairman “and also said “As held by the SC, there cannot be any mechanical fastening of criminal culpability on the chairman for the offence committed by a company or a corporate entity.“
“The CBI Court’s cognizance order did not show any proof of the judge applying his mind. It was passed in a mechanical manner,” the CJ said and quashed the case against the company.