- (1.) This Criminal Revision application has been filed on behalf of the petitioner against the order dated 01.03.2019 passed by the learned Special Judge, A.C.B., Chaibasa in Misc. Criminal Application No.360 of 2018, whereby he has rejected the discharge petition dated 19.12.2018 filed by the petitioner in connection with Vigilance Case No.37 of 2017 and held that there is sufficient material available on record for framing charge against the accused persons under Sections 420 , 467 , 468 , 469 , 471 , 409 , 201 , 109 , 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 13(2. read with 13(1.(d. of the Prevention of Corruption Act , 1988 and further fixed the case on 15.03.2019 for framing of charge.
(2.) Facts, giving rise to filing of instant Criminal Revision application, are that:- (i. Government of India provided fund in the year 1995 to the Regional Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur for establishment of higher class computer centre. Prof. Laxmi Rai, the then Principal of R.I.T., Jamshedpur constituted a Purchase Committee under his Chairmanship for purchasing the computers. Tender was invited from the reputed computer suppliers and after consideration, M/s Micro-Inn, Patna was ordered to supply 60 Computers without disk and 15 Computers with disc total worth Rs.4,33,65,000/- and also ordered to M/s Advance Computer Industries, New Delhi to supply two Multimedia Computers, Network file, Server-2, 20 Notebook Computer Pentium-2, Sun-Spark Station-4, Unix Server-2, Note Book Computer-2 and Software total worth of Rs.63,85,756/-. (ii. In the light of the above orders, computers were supplied in May, 1996 in the Institute by M/s Micro Inn, Patna, but the computers were not inspected by the Expert. (iii. After supply of the computers, there was no LAN (Local Area Networking. in the Institute, therefore, the computers were kept in the Store Room. (iv. After supply of the computers, total amount of Rs.43,36,500/- was paid to M/s Micro Inn, Patna vide bill ED-2019 dated 15.02.1996. (v. Similarly, the purchase order was given to M/s Advanced Computer Resources, New Delhi. The value of total purchase order worth Rs.150.00 Lakhs was given to these two suppliers as per the F.I.R. (vi. It is further alleged that when the aforesaid computers and software were inspected by the Professor-in-Charge Sri S.P. Singh, it came to light that the computers were of below standard; M/s Micro Inn, Patna, neither deputed its engineer in the Institute nor maintained the computers during warranty period. (vii. Further case of the prosecution is that M/s Advance Computer Resources, New Delhi supplied the Computers up till March, 1997 with delay. By that time, the price of computers became very low in the market, as a result of which supplier got much profit and the Institute sustained loss of huge amount worth Rs.16,89,630/- and the Institute was also deprived from the use of those computers. (viii. The Engineers of the Institute did not inspect the computers at the time of supply by the firm nor did the Firm depute its Engineer to maintain the computers during warranty period nor did the Firm provide free training to train the staffs of the Institute, resultantly, the Institute sustained loss worth Rs.7,37,289/-. The total loss in the form of excess payment was estimated by Prof. S.P. Singh at Rs.14,88,280/-. (ix. Further, the legal opinion was obtained and it was decided to take action against the supplier firm M/s. Micro Inn, Patna and M/s. Advanced Computer Resources, New Delhi. After that, F.I.R. has been registered against several persons including the petitioner for the offence punishable under Sections 420 , 467 , 468 , 471 , 409 , 201 , 109 , 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and 13(2. read with 13(1.(d. of the Prevention of Corruption Act , 1988.
(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner, assailing the impugned order, submitted that prior to joining of the petitioner in the aforesaid Institute, following persons had worked as Principal in the aforesaid Institute: - (i. Prof. Laxmi Rai, from 05.07.1995 to 25.01.1997; (ii. Prof. S.R. Prasad, from 26.01.1997 to 31.05.1998; (iii. Prof. Anant Prasad, from 01.06.1998 to 04.08.1998; and (iv. Prof. S.N. Sinha, from 05.08.1998 to 14.07.1999, It is further submitted that on the basis of a deep-rooted conspiracy at the behest of certain persons not having cordial relationship with the petitioner, the instant case has been instituted, as after bifurcation of the State of Bihar, several persons wanted to become Principal. It is further submitted that the first charge against the petitioner is that no efforts were made to install and update the computers purchased in the year 1995-96 and instead purchased new computers worth Rs.120.00 Lakhs in connivance with the Registrar Sri S.A. Hussain. Had these computers of 1995-96 been installed, updated and used, there could have been no need of purchasing new computers in 1999-2000. Such charge is wholly baseless, without evidence, without any expert's opinion and due to lack of awareness about requirement of computers in Engineering Institute and useful life of the Computers for scientific works. This besides, no earmarked fund was made available for updating such old computers and Rs.120.00 Lakhs was made available by the Government of India only for purchasing new and latest Computers. If the petitioner had diverted such fund to upgrade old computers, such act would have come under the financial irregularities. It is submitted that any effort to upgrade old computers would have been wastages of fund and the petitioner also got information that after purchase of new computers in 1999-2000 by the petitioner and after expiry of its useful life of three years, again 260 nos. of new computers were purchased by the Institute in 2003-04. Further it is submitted by the counsel for the petitioner that the Investigating Officer during investigation indicated that the old computers purchased in 1995-96 under the regime of then Principal Prof. Laxmi Rai were of 486 Version in which there were 35 computers with disk, 20 Notebook Computers and 60 were Diskless Computers without networking facility. The diskless computers numbering 60 cannot function without networking facility and there was no network facility made available at the time of purchase of computers in 1995-96 and hence, these became useless since the time of purchase. It is further submitted that these 486 version computers became obsolete in the year 1998 itself and newer version of Computer namely Pentium-I, Pentium-II and then in 1999 Pentium-III were launched in the market. Counsel for the petitioner further submits that the guidelines issued by Ministry of Corporate Affairs also suggest that useful life of a Computer is only for three years. The outdated old computers 486 version could not have been updated and there was no earmarked fund for this purpose. The expenditure incurred in this would have been a complete wastage of Government money and the petitioner would have been charged for wastage of the fund. This besides, the Computer Science Department never sent any requisition to update those old computers as they being experts in that field knew the reality better. It is further submitted that there was an urgent need for purchase of latest Pentium-III Computers, servers, UPS and LAN facility as per norms of All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE. to provide quality education to boost the placement and improve brand name of Institute. It is further stated that about 80% placement was in IT Sector and students and teachers were getting deprived of working on latest computers. Hence, 280 nos. of Computers were needed for B.Tech Students, 20 Computers were needed for M.Tech students and 45 Computers were needed for MCA Students. So the total Computers needed for those students were 345 Computers, leaving aside computers needed for offices, library and teachers. Even in 2004 the Institute purchased only 260 Pentium-IV computers in view of the rules/guidelines. It is also submitted that since the fund had been made available by MHRD-GOI for purchase of new Computers before joining of the petitioner on 15.07.1999, so the purchase of 110 nos. of IBM Pentium- III Computers, Servers was processed by the petitioner. The Computers were directly imported from Singapore and UPS, LAN and Software were procured from India after adopting proper procedure and were installed in the newly built Computer Centre which was inaugurated on 18.05.2000 by Hon'ble Minister of Technical Education Sri Chandrika Rai. ;