Court rejects bail of NGO Director in corruption case

18/11/2020

Jammu, Nov 17: Special Judge Anticorruption Kashmir RN Wattal rejected the bail application of Zaheer Abbas Bhatti Director M/S Social Welfare of India-NGO who was booked by the ACB Kashmir.
Police report reveals that on the basis of joint surprise check (JSC) conducted to look into allegations of fraud, corruption and embezzlement of public money by one NGO namely M/S Social Welfare of India and officials of Srinagar Municipal Corporation in construction of individual House Hold Latrines (IHHL) units under Swatch Bharat Mission (SBM), Scheme. During JSC, it was revealed that vide agreement No. 01 dated 13.05.2018 and allotment order No. SMC/EERRWD/899-903 dated 04.07.2017, the SMC allotted construction of 218 IHHL units 09 Twin Storage Pits to an NGO name M/S Social Welfare of India @ 17490/- per IHHL units and Rs. 12000/- per Twin Storage pit, respectively. The said work was to be executed under supervision of engineering wing of SMC and the NGO was to ensure the quality of work as per design approved by the Housing & Urban Development Department J&K, besides following all SBM guidelines. The JSC conducted also revealed that the NGO submitted completion certification with respect to the aforesaid work order to Commissioner SMC claiming that the allotted work of construction of 218 IHHL units and 09 Twin Storage Pits was complete, appending thereby the list of beneficiaries. The NGO claimed an amount of Rs. 39,20,820/- vide its bill No. 0027 dated 23.10.2017 and then Commissioner SMC got the matter verified through its Engineering Wing through the then Executive Engineer SMC namely Maroof Banday and the then JE SMC namely Javaid Iqbal Shah, who submitted verification report to the Commissioner stating therein that they conducted physical verification of all units, those actually exists on ground and have followed all required SBM guidelines/conditions mentioned in the SMC work order. On the basis of the claim submitted by the NGO and the subsequent verification report from Executive Engineer and the Junior Engineer, SMC an amount of Rs. 38,81,612/- was released by the Commissioner in favour of NGO through A/C 0704010100000219 at J&K Bank Branch Bathindi, Jammu. During JSC, it surfaced that not a single unit had been constructed by the NGO M/S Social Welfare of India and the engineering wing of the SMC submitted false competition/verification report to higher ups as such facilitated release of huge amount in favour of the NGO against no work done. By acting in this manner, the officers of the SMC in league with the NGO namely Social Welfare of India, headed by the accused/applicant by sheer abuse of their official position and for their own pecuniary benefits, submitted false completion/verification report facilitating in release of huge amount in favour of said NGO, as such conferred undue benefit upon the NGO of the accorded/petitioner and themselves. The commission on the part of the then Executive engineer SMC namely Maroof Banday (Now Retired) S/O Hissam-u-din Banday R/O Habak Hazratbal, then Jr. Engineer SMC namely Javaid Iqbal Shah S/O Maqsood Ahmad Shah R/O Bhagi Sunder Payeen, Kaka Sarai Srinagar, Zaheer Abbass Bhatti (petitioner) S/O Muneer Hussain Bhatti R/O Vidhatta Nagar Bathindi, Jammu, Director M/S Social Welfare of India, Ishrat Ashraf Shah D/O Mohammad Ashraf Shah R/O Noorbagh, Srinagar, General Secretary M/S Social Welfare of India and others constitute offences punishable U/s 5(1)(c), 5(1)(d) r/w/ Section 5(2) of JK P.C Act and Section 120-IPC and accordingly case FIR No. 12/2020 was registered in P/S ACB Srinagar and investigation taken up. It is submitted that anticipatory bail preferred by the petitioner was dismissed by this court and accused was arrested on 20.10.2020 in the instant FIR for questioning viz-a-viz relevant facts of the case in order to proceed ahead with the investigation. The accused was allotted construction of 218 IHHL & 9 Twin Storage Pits @ Rs. 17490/- per IHHL & Rs. 12000/- per Twin Storage Pit and the work was to be executed under the supervision of concerned engineering wing of SMC and that the NGO was to ensure quality of work as per the design approved by Housing & urban Development Department J&K following all SBM guidelines, however, the said construction has not been effected on ground at all and the NGO headed by petitioner/accused as Director has submitted bogus list of beneficiaries to the SMC claiming an amount of Rs. 38,81,612/-which stand released in favour of NGO for doing no work at all, resulting in loss to the State exchequer. The accused in league with co-accused have committed the offence which resulted in loss to the State exchequer. The investigation of the case is at infancy stage and various aspects of the case are to be investigated, as such the accused is required for further questioning to unearth the actual facts having bearing with the investigation of the case which can unravel many other issues related to the case, to proceed ahead with the investigation and to finalize the investigation of the case on merits. Lastly, it is submitted that the bail application preferred by the petitioner/accused may be rejected. 4. In his objections, the learned Spl. PP firstly reiterated the contents of the police report and further opposed the application on the grounds that the accused is misleading the court by mentioning the fact that the allegations levelled against him are baseless or not well founded. The fact of the matter is that FIR has been registered against him on the basis of outcome of a joint surprise check conducted by ACB Kashmir into the allegations of fraud, corruption and embezzlement of public money by one NGO M/S Social Welfare of India and officials of Srinagar Municipal Corporation in construction of Individual House Hold Latrines (IHHL) units under Swatch Bharat Mission (SBM) scheme. During the JSC it was revealed that the accused was functioning as Director M/S Social Welfare of India, by way of abusing his official position in connivance with officials of Engineering wing of SMC has submitted false completion/verification report to higher authorities for facilitating the release of huge amount in favour of NGO M/S Social Welfare of India as such conferred undue benefit upon themselves.
Special Judge Anticorruption Kashmir RN Wattal after hearing both the sides observed that Not a single latrine was constructed on spot and documents were manipulated pursuant to conspiracy to give an impression about the construction of IHHL units on spot. The construction of IHHL units remained on papers only without execution on spot. Resultantly, the government exchequer was defrauded and loss to the tune of Rs. 39 lacs was caused to the government exchequer. From the evidence collected by the prosecution till date as reveals from police report, there are genuine reasonable grounds that petitioner has committed offences as referred in FIR. In light of the incriminating material that has come fore against the petitioner during investigation, the stage is not right to grant bail in favour of the petitioner.The investigation in the case is still in its infancy. The officials of Municipality who conspired with the petitioner to defraud the government exchequer by swindling huge amount of money under Swatch Bharat Abiyan are still at large. Moreover, involvement of some influential's who were part of the criminal conspiracy with the petitioner, the investigation qua their role is going on. The concession of bail at this stage shall undeniably prejudice and obstruct the further course of investigation as material witnesses being influenced with, cannot be ruled out. Petitioner's involvement is in economic offences. Economic offences are committed with cool, calm intent and planned design with an eye on personal profit regardless of the consequences and its adverse effect on the society. These offences affecting the economy very much fall within the category of grave offences. On this count also petitioner does not deserve the concession of bail at this stage.

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