Delhi court raps CBI for not filing chargesheet against MTNL staffers ‘involved in fraud’

The CBI stated that some public servants of MTNL had conspired with two private persons — Vimal Dutt and Manoj — so as to cause financial losses to the tune of around Rs.6.33 lakh.

The agency stated that some employees of MTNL had tampered with the telephone exchange switches, whereby ISD/STD facilities were provided to the private persons through a telephone number, even though the same was not allotted in anybody’s name.

This illegal tampering of the switches ensured that the ISD/STD services from the above telephone numbers were availed without any billing in this regard, the court noted.

“These facts made this evidently clear that MTNL could have been cheated by the private persons without active connivance of the MTNL employees, but still no chargesheet under Prevention of Corruption Act was filed by the CBI,” the court said.

The court added that even though the CBI had registered an FIR, the IO did not file the chargesheet before a Special Judge and instead did so before a Metropolitan Magistrate.

Special Judge Surinder S Rathi has directed the agency to furnish a detailed written explanation in this regard and hand over the police files and other records to the court.

The court stated that even though the three employees of MTNL were arrested during investigation, they were neither named in the chargesheet nor designated as accused, and that the final report was not sent for trial for want of sufficient evidence.

“Text of the chargesheet does not contain any discussion as to what material was collected against these three MTNL Employees/Public Servants. It appears to be a case of self-contradiction on the part of CBI when they found sufficient evidence for arresting three Public Servants under PC Act, but still did not find the evidence sufficient to chargesheet them,” the court said.