March 22, 2019:

On Friday, Delhi High Court has ordered to register FIR against a former commissioner of the Delhi Police.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Rajender Menon has ordered two FIRs against former top cop Neeraj Kumar.

Along with a former inspector of the CBI, Vinod Pandey, the Court found merit in booking Kumar for his role in allegedly fabricating documents and harassing and torturing a man when he was joint director in the bureau.

Court also directed the special cell of the Delhi Police to get both cases registered by an ACP-level Officer and to complete the investigation within 2 months.

Neeraj Kumar and Vinod Pandey had challenged two orders passed by Justice R.C. Jain of the Delhi High Court in June 2006.

In one of these cases, the Judge had severely deprecated their conduct.

The Court said the two had fabricated documents and got them signed from an accountant, Sheesh Ram Saini, under pressure. The two also issued threats during the course of the investigation in a CBI case against the former deputy director of the Enforcement Directorate, Ashok Aggarwal, the Court noted.

In the second order, also passed in June 2006, Justice Jain ordered another FIR against Kumar and Pandey for summoning Vijay Aggarwal, Ashok Aggarwal’s younger brother, with oblique motives and in violation of an order passed by a Special Judge.

The two CBI Officers were accused of torturing, humiliating and harassing Vijay, while keeping him in wrongful confinement in the CBI Office.

In its recent order on March 13, the High Court bench of Chief Justice Menon and Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani said, “on 26.06.2006, the writ Court had directed for registration of FIR and proceed with the investigation immediately and conclude it within 2 months. This order has not been given effect to till now. Accordingly, we direct for registration of the FIR forthwith and conclude the investigation within a period of 2 months as directed by the learned writ Court.”

It also found “the present appeals to be not maintainable” and dismissed both appeals.

The High Court had held that Kumar and Pandey had committed criminal offences. The bench also held that investigation in the case had been done in a padded manner and through their conduct, these officers had shaken the very edifice of criminal prosecution.

The division bench also upheld the findings of Justice Jain against the CBI Officers. With the High Court order, the cases have once again come to hound Neeraj Kumar, whose name was earlier rejected by the Central Vigilance Commission for the post of CBI director in view of these findings.

Kumar was later posted as commissioner of the Delhi police, but his tenure was not a smooth one. It was during his term as commissioner that the brutal NIRBHAYA rape and murder took place.

The CBI had registered a case against Indian Revenue Service officer Ashok Aggarwal while he was working as deputy director of the ED in 1996 and supervising an investigation against a powerful FERA accused.

In Jan 2016, the Delhi High Court exonerated Aggarwal. It concluded that the CBI filed the case against him out of ‘intentional mischief’, and the investigation was conducted in a mala fide manner in order to implicate Aggarwal and ensure that the FERA accused went scot free.

The Delhi High Court also held that Aggarwal was made to undergo humiliation and suffering for more than 16 years.

The Ministry of Finance has also drawn a lot of flak for its role. The High Court earlier held that the ministry was not lagging behind in harassing Aggarwal.

After the Central Administrative Tribunal granted all consequential benefits to Ashok Aggarwal, including his promotions at par with his juniors, the Ministry of Finance challenged that order in the Supreme Court.

The Apex Court, however, dismissed its petition. Thereafter, there is talk of Ashok Aggarwal being promoted as chief commissioner of income tax.

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