Fake Raid - Central Excise Superintendent Sentenced to Five Years Imprisonment

By Vijay Kumar

IN 2012, in a sensational case, a Commissioner of Central Excise and a Superintendent working under him were arrested. The charges made by the CBI were in brief:

Hemant Gandhi was acting as a middleman for accused Dr. A.K. Srivastava and Lallan Ojha, who were respectively posted as Commissioner and Superintendent of Central Excise at the relevant time. The allegations are that they were involved in obtaining illegal gratification by corrupt and illegal means from the businessmen. Further, the allegations are that they had conspired to conduct an unauthorized raid at the business premises of Dalip Aggarwal and Anand Aggarwal. It was alleged that in furtherance of the conspiracy, accused Hemant Gandhi had shown the premises of Aggarwals to Lallan Ojha on the evening of 27.12.2011 and it was decided to conduct a raid on the morning of 28.12.2011. In the process a team of officials of Central Excise led by accused Lallan Ojha conducted surprise raid at the godown premises of Dalip Aggarwal and Anand Aggarwal on 28.12.2011 under the overall supervision and control of accused Srivastava. Then they negotiated with Aggarwals for an illegal gratification for not taking any action and made an initial demand of Rs. 2 crore which was ultimately finalized at Rs. 60 lac. A sum of Rs. 40 lac was received in cash and a cheque of Rs. 20 lac was issued by Aggarwals as security for the remaining amount of bribe. Out of the said amount, a sum of Rs. 3 lac was paid to Ojha as his share and the said amount was given on 2.1.2012 to his driver who kept the same in the dickey of the car parked at his office at ITO. Accused Lallan Ojha was apprehended and got recovered Rs. 2,96,500/- from the dickey of his car. His driver confirmed that this money was delivered to him by an unknown person at the instance of Ojha.

The Charge Sheet against the Commissioner was discharged by the Delhi High Court in 2013 and the case continued against the Superintendent.

On Friday, the Delhi CBI Court sentenced the accused Superintendent Lallan Ojha to five years imprisonment.

The Court observed, "This is a sordid story where victimized businessmen were triply suffered. First, due to illegal raid; second, due to having paid money to public servants without doing any illegality in the business and, third, having been prosecuted."

There were three other Superintendents in this case who are also in trouble. The Court observed, "From the record of this case, it appears that S.K. Singh, Superintendent (PW12), Sunil Kumar, Superintendent (PW21) and K. N. Srivastava (PW-29) were also members of the fraud raid under the leadership of convict Lallan Ojha and they even knew the nature of the raid. Although, they had been cited as prosecution witnesses probably with a view that they may disclose everything before the court, unfortunately, they did not come up to the expectations of the prosecution and even resiled from their statements under Section 164 Cr.PC. In my opinion, atleast departmental action should be initiated against them for dereliction of duty. I recommend that CBI should examine this aspect and if deemed fit, appropriate action may be recommended to Central Excise Department against these officials."

Please also see DDT 1814 14 03 2012; DDT 2068 19 03 2013; DDT 2239 27 11 2013.