: A Special court for CBI cases here has acquitted a former Councillor of Nangloi East Ward of the then Municipal Corporation of Delhi and her husband in a corruption case of 2007.
CBI had arrested then Councillor Veena Saini’s husband Naresh Saini for accepting bribe money at his office. It had later arrested Ms. Saini.
The complainant alleged that the couple had demanded Rs. 50,000 for permitting constructions and Rs. 50,000 for laying sewer lines to one-storey houses.
The Councillor’s husband had also threatened the complainant that if he did not pay the money, he would disconnect the sewer connections and demolish the constructions on the plots of his cousin, the complaint said.
Later, Mr. Saini had agreed on Rs. 51,600. The investigating agency had arrested him while accepting the first instalment of Rs. 25,000.
Charges cleared
But Special Judge Sanjay Garg dismissed the case of the CBI saying that “in view of contradictory versions of the incident ( talks with the Councillor regarding the demand of bribe by her husband) which have come the complainant and two other witnesses, the verification conducted by the CBI on May 22, 2007, has come under a shadow of doubt.”
The court also rejected the transcript of a conversation recorded with the Councillor’s husband at the time of laying traps to catch him.
Regarding the demand of sewer charges, the court said: “The only suspicion which arises from the evidence is that the Councillor’s husband might have demanded more money than he used to from other residents of the area on account of sewer charges.”
