After 2 decades, 71-yr-old customs officer acquitted in excess assets case

A 71-year-old retired customs officer who was booked two decades ago in 2002 in a disproportionate assets case was on Thursday acquitted by a special court which held that his excess income was only to the extent of Rs 1 lakh which amounted to only 10 per cent of his income. The court also noted that the investigating officer had clubbed the officer’s wife's income to show his disproportionate assets as a huge figure.

The Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had booked PN Muralidharan Pillai, who served as preventive officer, customs department, under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA). Pillai was on deputation to the Air Customs of Trivandrum Airport. The agency alleged that between December 1997 and December 1999 he had amassed Rs 15.83 lakh disproportionate to his known sources of income. Among the excess assets, was Rs 9 lakh in foreign currency that had been recovered from Pillai's home, along with Rs 4 lakh in cash.

The court noted in its judgement that Rs 4 lakh is duly accounted for in income tax returns of Pillai's wife who has an independent business as well as income from agricultural land in her home state and income from rental property. The amount was paid by a prospective buyer for her flat in Boisar as earnest money. The court held that the amount thus has to be considered as the wife's income. It held upon calculations that Pillai was found in excess of only Rs 1.05 lakh.

The court said the sanctioning authority that had granted the sanction to prosecute the accused, a public servant, had been kept in the dark about an order for the Enforcement Directorate dropping charges against Pillai, which came seven months prior to seeking sanction. It said the officer has “selectively withheld” and “wilfully avoided” to consider the amounts (of wife's income). It held that no disproportionate assets were found as alleged by the prosecution. The excess of Rs 1 lakh being comparatively small, it said would not be right to say that he was found in possession of disproportionate assets.