Additional Sessions Judge Anti corruption Udhampur S RGandhi today rejected the bail application of Rakesh Kumar Pargal of Udhampur,the then Chief Supervisor FCI Godown Udhampur, former Incharge Vigilance Squadin Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs in alleged 260 Crores Scam.

The facts of the case as reveals from the police report arethat a verification conducted by this Bureau inter-alia into the allegations ofmisappropriation of Rs. 260 crores on account of cost of wheat grains,transportation charges, labour charges drawn on the basis of fictitious andfalse bills, had revealed  acts ofomissions and commissions  on the part ofthe officers/Officials of CA & PD Department namely Mr. Muklis Ali, thethen Assistant Director, CA & PD Department Udhampur, Abdul Rashid, thethen Assistant Director CA & PD Department Udhampur, Joginder Singh, thethen Assistant Director CA & PD Udhampur, Romesh Chander, the thenAssistant Director CA & PD Udhampur, Romesh Kumar, the then Supervisor,Trikuta Flour Mill Udhampur, Sushma Gupta, the then Supervisor Trikuta FlourMill, Udhampur, Susheel Kumar, the then Supervisor FCI Godown Udhampur, Rakesh Pargal, the then Supervisor CA& PD posted at FCI Godown Udhampur, Deepak Abrol, the then Incharge, DepotOffice SRTC Udhampur, Ramesh Kumar, then Clerk in Deport Office SRTC Udhampur,Sumit Mahajan, Prop. M/S Trikuta Flour Mill Udhampur, Amit Mahajan, Prop. M/STrikuta Flour Mill Udhampur, Paramdeep Singh@Pumma, Prop. M/S Vikas TransportCompany and others, which constituted, prima facie, the commission of offencesunder Section 5(1),(c), (d) r/w 5(2) J&K PC Act Svt. 2006 and Sections120-B,420,467,468,471 RPC. Consequently case FIR No. 01/2020 was registered on19-02-2020 at P/S ACB, Doda for investigation. That, during the course ofinvestigation house search warrants from the Hon’ble Court of Special JudgeAnti Corruption, Jammu, were obtained and accordingly house searches at theresidential premises of the accused persons were conducted on 20-02-2020 inpresence of Magistrates and Independent Witnesses, during the course ofwhich  incriminating documents/Items wererecovered/seized, which were put to scrutiny and the laptops and hard disk which were seized during the house searchproceedings have been sent to CFSL for expert analysis, report whereof is stillawaited. That  during the course ofinvestigation on perusal of the seized records it was found that some of theoriginal records pertaining to the misappropriation of the govt. money wasmissing regarding which various officials were called and questioned/examinedin detail in order  to trace the saidrecord. However, during examination of the officials it surfaced that one ofthe accused Mr. Rakesh Pargal, ( the applicant herein) who at the relevant timewas the  Junior assistant CA & PDposted as Supervisor in FCI godown Udhampur had been following and enquiringabout the said missing records from the concerned officials and was one of themasterminds who was running the whole nexus of the Govt. officials/contractorsand the Mill owners of the Trikuta Flour Mill Udhampur solely in order tomisappropriate the Govt. Money, by sheer abuse of his official position.  On ascertaining all the possibilities it hasemerged that Mr. Rakesh Pargal was instrumental in concealing/misplacing thevital records, which is required for the purpose of investigation. That,strenuous efforts were made to examine Mr Rakesh Pargal, Junior Assistant CA& PD and he was asked to join the investigation but on examination he wasfound to be non-cooperative and reluctant to divulge/disclose any factsregarding missing record of CA & PD or any other facts of the case, andwas  found to be deliberately concealingthe facts and misleading the investigation and the IO. That , keeping in viewthe hardcore and non-cooperative attitude of the accused and his record /involvement in various other cases, a need was felt necessary to formallyarrest the said accused in order  to havehis custodial interrogation in order to unravel the truth and  logical conclusion of the investigation whichis primarily concerned with the abuse of the official position by the publicservants and misappropriation of around Rs.260 Crores of the public/ govt.money.

Additional Sessions Judge Anticorruption Udhampur S R Gandhiwhile rejecting the bail application observed that the investigating agencyrequires more time to unearth the conspiracy and to retrieve the missing recordas well. Having regard to the stage of the investigation, it is not possible toexpress opinion on the merits of the case. In this case public money involvedis huge and thus public interest is involved. In dealing with such cases theconsequences of granting bail to an accused involved is always considered withits ultimate impact on the society. The economic offences brings imbalance inthe economy of the country thereby affecting the poor public and the State. Inthe considered view of the court accused-applicant do not deserve to get bail whenthe investigation is still in progress. There is every possibility of theapplicant-accused tampering with the evidence and hampering-the investigationif he is released on bail.