2 co-op officials acquitted in 2012 bribery

A Thane court has acquitted a deputy registrar of cooperative societies and another official in a bribery case of 2012, giving them the benefit of doubt.

The prosecution had alleged that on February 12, 2012, the then deputy registrar of cooperative societies, Mahesh Salunke-Patil, 55, demanded Rs 3.50 lakh for himself and woman officer Vidya Deshmukh, 38, in lieu of issuing a favourable verification report to a housing society in Thane. The prosecution also told the court that Patil did not accept the bribe as he was not present in his office when the complainant went there to give him the money.

While the counsel for the accused told the court that their clients were not connected to the case and there was no payment of bribe.

In his order passed on April 13, district judge (ACB court), Shailendra Tambe, said the complainant alleged that the accused had demanded money by writing on a chit of paper, which was not seized by the investigating officer nor did the latter send the handwriting sample of the accused for verification. It is also found there are three investigating officers in the case and the first one was not examined by the prosecution. The prosecution has also not explained the two-year delay in lodging the FIR against the accused, it noted, observing that the investigating officer has not submitted the CD of the conversation between the accused and the complainant.

The complainant and the investigating officer deposed that accused Patil was not found in his office when the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials went to nab him. In view of the above facts and circumstances, the court has found that the bribery charge against the accused is not proved and the complainant's evidence to that effect is not corroborative, the court said while acquitting the accused duo.