Sambhajinagar, Aug 30: The Bombay High Court's Aurangabad bench has quashed and set aside an alleged bribery FIR as well as the case pending before a special (anti-corruption) court, against the then regional transport office (RTO) inspector Ravikiran N Bhad in Beed.
The court held that the complaint and the FIR appear to have been filed with mala fide intention.
The anti-corruption bureau unit in Beed registered a case of demand of bribes against Bhad on January 20, 2022, almost four months after a complaint was lodged against him on September 16, 2021, and three months after the ACB unsuccessfully tried to trap Bhad on October 20, 2021.
A Beed lawyer, who also works as an agent in the RTO, lodged the complaint stating that on September 15, 2021, Bhad demanded Rs 2,000 for each of the four vehicles the complainant got inspected by him between September 9 and 14, 2021, for the grant of fitness certificates.
Bhad, who was suspended for eight months after registration of the alleged bribery case, is presently posted as an RTO inspector in Panvel.
He moved the HC through his lawyer V D Salunke for the quashing and setting aside the FIR and the case before the special court.
HC bench of Justice Vibha Kankanwadi and Justice Sanjay A Deshmukh found several gaps in the prosecution's case. Like, no demand for bribe could be made out from the audio transcript of the conversation between the complainant and Bhad that was recorded as part of a pre-trap panchanama exercise besides there was an inordinate delay in the registration of FIR.
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