Ex-company law board chief to face graft trial
June 6th, 2012 - 10:19 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, June 6 (IANS) Former acting chairperson of Company Law Board (CLB) R. Vasudevan and four others will face trial in a graft case after a CBI special court here framed charges against them.
“Having discussed law on charge, law on conspiracy, intercepted conversation amongst the accused persons and the other overt acts of the accused, I am of the opinion that prima facie following charges have been made out against the accused persons,” said Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma in an order made available Wednesday.
The court framed charges against Vasudevan, a private firm’s company secretary Manoj Kumar Banthia, chartered accountant Harshvardhan Lodha, lawyer Ankur Chawla and Chawla’s associate Vikas Shukla, under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and penal provisions for criminal conspiracy in a recently pronounced order.
It was alleged by the probe agency that Vasudevan accepted a bribe of Rs.7 lakh from Banthia for giving a favourable order in a case pending before the CLB.
The court observed that investigation revealed that Banthia was appearing before Vasudevan in 2004-05 and developed good terms with him.
According to the Nov 23, 2009 first information report (FIR), Ankur Chawla approached Banthia for getting a favourable order from the CLB in a case related to his client.
Banthia demanded Rs.10 lakh from Chawla for this purpose, police said.
The court found prima facie evidence to proceed with the trial of Vasudevan and others saying that the telephone conversations recorded by the CBI showed that he had accepted the bribe which was recovered from his house.
It was alleged that Lodha introduced Banthia to Chawla.
“The conversation as already discussed above (in the order) clearly shows not only the payment of money but also acceptance thereof, since accused R. Vasudevan was caught at the spot when the trap was laid and the bribe money was recovered from him at his residence,” the court said.
One of the accused, Atul Maheshwari, managing director of a daily, died during the trial.
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Tags: bribe money, cbi, central bureau of investigation, chartered accountant, company secretary, criminal conspiracy, graft case, graft trial, information report, lakh, manoj kumar, overt acts, penal provisions, prevention of corruption act, prima facie evidence, private firm, shukla, special judge, telephone conversations, vasudevan