Jaipur: A special CBI court in Jaipur Metro-I acquitted former additional general manager (AGM) of BSNL, Bipin Kumar Roy, in a decade-old bribery case, observing that “mere recovery of alleged bribe money is not sufficient to prove the offence” unless the prosecution established a clear demand and voluntary acceptance of the bribe.The court, in its order on March 10, held that the prosecution “failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused demanded the bribe or willingly accepted it”. As a result, Roy was given the benefit of doubt and acquitted of the charges. Counsel for the petitioner, Deepak Chauhan, stated that the court carefully examined the recorded audio conversations, transcripts, and witness statements presented during the trial. “After evaluating the evidence, the court found that neither the recordings nor their transcripts clearly indicated that the accused demanded a bribe,” Chauhan added. He further argued that the sanction for prosecution was not granted in accordance with rules and that no work of the complainant was pending with the accused. According to the case details, contractor Sunil Kumar filed a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Jan 7, 2016. In the complaint, he alleged that he was engaged in underground Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) laying work and that some of his bills were pending with the dept. He claimed that Roy demanded a bribe amounting to 2 per cent of the bill value for clearing the pending payments. Based on the complaint, the CBI conducted a trap operation and allegedly caught the officer accepting Rs 50,000 as a bribe. Subsequently, a chargesheet was filed in court.
