New Delhi, Oct 8 (PTI) A Delhi court has ordered framing corruption charges against a former Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) assistant sanitary inspector accused of demanding and accepting bribes from a sweeper, saying a “prima facie case” was made out against him.
Special Judge Vidya Prakash passed the order on Wednesday in the case against the accused, Ved Pal, saying there was sufficient material to frame a charge under Section 7 (offence relating to a public servant being bribed) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.
According to the prosecution, the complainant, Naresh, had been working as a sweeper with the MCD since 1994, and, in a complaint to the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) on September 6, 2019, he alleged that Pal, his superior, was corrupt and had been demanding bribes from him and other sweepers.
Naresh alleged that when he refused to pay, Pal threatened not to let him mark his attendance, to obstruct the release of his salary and to stop him from preparing his duty chart, without which he could not draw his monthly wages, the prosecution said.
It said that he claimed to have made audio-video recordings of three occasions, November 12, 2018, December 22, 2018 and January 21, 2019, in which Pal was allegedly seen accepting Rs 2,000, Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 respectively.
Based on a complaint, the ACB registered an FIR on September 9, 2019.
In its order, the court said, “It is hereby directed that a prima facie case is made out for framing of charge in respect of offence punishable under Section 7 of the PC Act. Accordingly, the charge be framed against the accused.”
It said that there are direct and specific allegations in the written complaint against the accused to the effect that he had repeatedly demanded and accepted illegal gratification of different amounts on at least three occasions.
“Apart from that, the complainant (Naresh) also purportedly produced three audio-video recordings before the investigating officer (IO), which would show that the accused had accepted currency notes from the complainant and had kept the same in his pocket during all those three occasions,” the court said.
It said another prosecution witness, the complainant’s son, Abhishek Sood, had corroborated Naresh’s version to the extent that he had helped him to fix a spy pen camera in connection with recording of incidents regarding demand and acceptance of illegal gratification by the accused on all three occasions.
“Not only this, the prosecution has also relied upon forensic science laboratory (FSL) results; more particularly, the FSL result dated July 26, 2025, wherein it is opined that there is no indication of any form of alteration in the identified video shots on the basis of frame-by-frame analysis while using the Video Analyst System,” the court said.
It then trashed as “untenable in law” the contention of the accused regarding certain anomalies regarding the months and years displayed in all three audio-video recordings.
“This is more so when it is a matter of record that the complainant was working as a sweeper and thus, was an illiterate person,” it said.
“There is nothing on record to show as to what was the educational qualification of prosecution witness Abhishek Sood, who had assisted his father or complainant by fixing a spy pen camera at the time of conducting the alleged sting operations,” the court said.
It said the prosecution deserves to be afforded an opportunity to explain these anomalies or discrepancies, if any, by producing its witnesses during trial. PTI MNR MNR KSS
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