Application moved for impartial probe

AFTER THE Indore bench of the High Court ordered quashing of the FIR against ex-DGP Swaraj Puri, complainant Mahesh Garg moved an application in the court of First Additional District and Special Judge Akhilesh Pandya for an impartial investigation into the alleged fraud committed by Puri for an admission of his son Shreyas to the Govindram Sakseria Institute of Technology and Science, Indore recently.

The case has been listed before the Special Judge on November 4. The complainant through his counsel Dr Manohar Dalal stated that the Economic Offence Wing in its reply submitted before the High Court has found no relationship between Swaraj, Shreyas and businessman Baboolal Somani, who sponsored latter’s fee under the NRI-sponsored quota.

The ex-DGP did not obtain government consent for Rs 3 lakh received from Somani and deposited with the SGSITS as tuition fee. Although the total fee is Rs 6 lakh, (tuition fee of US $12,000 and caution money US $ 1,500) but the accused has shown it to be just Rs 3 lakh, which is prima facie a crime under Section 7/20 of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 besides being a case of forgery and fraud, the applicant said.

As per the EOW investigations, the proofs of deposited fee have not been seized from Shreyas while Somani is shown to be untraceable, the applicant remarked.

The applicant charged that in NRI-sponsorship certificate printed and signed in English, Somani has been shown as Shreyas’s grandfather and below his signature is a Hindi remark – ‘mata ke mausaji’, which is in different handwriting.

The Hindi remark, which has been added later in the certificate, is an offence under the Section 201 of the IPC but no attempts have been made to know the name of Hindi remark maker from the accused, application said.

Adding further, it said that the EOW didn’t even express wish to interrogate the ex-DGP for collecting evidence in its reply submitted to the HC due to influence of Puri who is holding a rank parallel to the DGP.