Kripashankar Singh discharged in assets case, kin remains accused

Mumbai: A special Prevention of Corruption court on Wednesday discharged Congress leader Kripashankar Singh from a case relating to accusations against him of amassing assets disproportionate to his known income.

The court discharged him on the ground that the government had not given sanction to prosecute him. His four family members are still accused in this case and will file discharge pleas in near future.

Dilip K. Gudadhe, special judge presiding over the Anti Corruption Bureau court on Wednesday said that he has allowed the application for discharge moved by Kripashankar Singh and “Accused no 1 (Singh) is discharged.” The judge also said, “Matter to proceed further against rest of the accused as per law.”

“We had filed discharge application on behalf of Kripashankar on November 28, 2016 and court allowed this application today,” said his lawyer K.H. Giri.

Speaking about the grounds for seeking discharge, he said, “We had contended that the government had not allowed Economics Offences Wing (EOW) to prosecute Kripashankar. The agency should have taken the sanction prior to filing the chargesheet and hence the chargesheet was not sustainable in the court of law.”

Speaking to The Asian Age, he also said that rest of four accused are family members but they are not government servants. “Only Singh was a government servant so there cannot be a case of corruption against his family members, who were not government servants. They would also move and seek discharge in near future.”

The EOW had charged Singh under section 13 (1) (d) and 13 (1) (e) of Prevention of Corruption Act read with 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant), 471 (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence).

The EOW had filed the chargesheet on April 21, 2015 against Singh, his wife Malti Devi, son Narendra Mohan Singh, son-in-law Vijay Singh and daughter-in-law Ankita Singh.  

A case was filed against Singh and his family members in February 2012, after the Bombay high court directed the Mumbai police to investigate the allegations of criminal misconduct and disproportionate assets.

The HC had issued this direction while hearing a PIL filed by activist Sanjay Tiwari, who had alleged that Singh and his relatives had assets of Rs 320 crore disproportionate to their known income.  

The petition had further alleged that Singh had been close to former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, who was in jail for alleged involvement in a multi-crore hawala scam.

The PIL had also alleged that several monetary transactions had taken place between them. Singh’s son is married to Ankita, daughter of Kamlesh Singh, who was a minister in the Koda cabinet.