A special court has acquitted former income tax commissioner Ashok Purwar in a sensational corruption case for lack of sufficient evidence against him. Purwar was charged with taking money from a government contractor in 2001 to pass an order in his favour.
According to the CBI, the complainant Kripashankar Chaturvedi’s chartered accountant, demanded money on Purwar’s behalf in 2001 to get favourable orders passed. The initial demand was alleged to be Rs 20 lakh but after negotiations it was reduced to Rs 8,50,000.
The chargesheet against Purwar said that he called Chaturvedi and said that his C.A. had given him only Rs 6,50,000 and if the remaining amount was not coughed up he would “spoil his case”.
Chaturvedi complained to the CBI that he went to Purwar’s office at Piramal Chambers with Rs 50,000 on June 22, 2001. Purwar was then allegedly caught in a trap laid by CBI while accepting the bribe amount.
At that time the CBI said that Purwar had even tried throwing the graft money out of the window to escape arrest when the raid took place.
Purwar was booked under Prevention of Corruption Act and the prosecution examined several witnesses, including the complainant, Chaturvedi, to build up its case. However, Purwar maintained in
court that he was innocent and had not taken any bribe from him.
The telephonic conversation between Purwar and Chaturvedi where the alleged dealing for bribe took place had also been produced as evidence by the CBI. When the trial before special judge Vijay Sikchi was to begin, Purwar had moved the Bombay high court against the admissibility of telephonic conversation as evidence.
