This story is from September 11, 2014

Prima facie case against ex-DOP, says court

Rejecting the application of the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) to close the proceedings against former director of prosecution (DOP) Shobha Dhumaskar, a special court for CBI at Mapusa has ordered issue of process against her in an alleged corruption case of favouring a company while hiring premises on lease for public prosecutors
Prima facie case against ex-DOP, says court
Panaji: Rejecting the application of the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) to close the proceedings against former director of prosecution (DOP) Shobha Dhumaskar, a special court for CBI at Mapusa has ordered issue of process against her in an alleged corruption case of favouring a company while hiring premises on lease for public prosecutors.
The order serves as a set back to the ACB which claimed that the case is true, but, evidence is weak and there is no substantive
conclusive evidence to file chargesheet.

Special Judge P V Sawaikar observed “There is sufficient material to prima facie establish commission of an offence punishable under Section 13(2) r/w.13(1)(d)(i) and (ii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, by her.”
The court ordered that the chargesheet shall be registered and process shall be issued against Dhumaskar for the offence.
Social activist Aires Rodrigues had objected to the closure report submitted by ACB to the court. Rodrigues had alleged that the rent had been arbitrarily fixed at 30,000 per month without any justification. Rodrigues had earlier filed a complaint against her.
The judge held that it was never the intention of the government to increase the rent at the rate of 10% per annum. “The DOP, however, incorporated the said clause in the original lease deed although the government has not concurred with the same. Only inference that can be drawn for said act of DOP is that she had abused her position as a public servant for the advantage of the owners of the premises,” the court observed.

“The above fact read with the act of the DOP of proposing only one premises belonging to M/s Cosmos Ventures Pvt Ltd without calling for any other offers leads to an inference that the DOP had acted in abuse of her position for the benefit of the owners of the premises,” the court remarked.
“It is clear that the DOP has suppressed certain relevant documents from the experts who were asked to determine the reasonable rent, the document relating to the age of the building was also suppressed from the executive engineer. No efforts were made to shift the office of PPs and APPs to the hired premises for more than three years. The clause of 10%increase in rent was also surreptitiously incorporated in the lease deed which leads to a prima facie conclusion that the DOP hadby corrupt means or with dishonest intention and abusing her position committed an act for the pecuniary benefit of the owners of the premises,” the court observed.
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