Nagpur: Chief Judicial Magistrate U P Kulkarni in Nagpur acquitted Mohan Padwanshi, Rajesh Meshram and others, accused in the stationery scam of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. Offences under Sections 420, 465, 468, 471 r/w.34 of the IPC had been registered against them with the Sadar police station.
Based on the report lodged by Dr Sanjay Chilkar, HOD, Health Department NMC, offences were registered against contractor Sakode and his family members along with Padwanshi who was working at the post of Upper Grade Clerk in General Administration Department of NMC, Rajesh Meshram, Accounts Officer and others.
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Wed 25 Dec. 2024
The prosecution contended that on December 4, 2021 the Store In-charge in Health Department Prashant Bhatulkar informed the complainant that the accused persons had by fabricating bogus receipts, invoices and bills proceeded to get an amount of Rs. 67.08 lakh sanctioned and disbursed from the NMC. It was alleged that the said documents were forged with fraudulent signatures. The accused persons were arrested and a chargesheet was filed.
Advocate Prakash Naidu, representing the accused, argued that the prosecution had failed to prove that the stock which was allegedly ordered against fabricated bills and invoices reached the store of the NMC. The process of clearance of bills is done on the basis of physical bills/hard copy and not through e-governance, it was argued. It was also pointed out that the allegations of the accused using login ID and password of Dr Chilkar to clear the bills for further processing, were false as Dr Chilkar had admitted that he did not possess any login ID and password.
The prosecution also failed to bring on record the Stock Book Register on the basis of which inference could be drawn as to whether the alleged stock was received by the NMC or not. The IO Pravin Kamble also admitted that despite having seized the Stock Book Register, he had not submitted it along with the chargesheet. Witnesses also admitted that there was no use of E-Governance site and the physical bills submitted were sent to the Store In-Charge who forwarded it to the HOD and later to Accounts Department after approval.
Dr Chilkar, under cross examination, admitted that the procedure of billing was done through physical copies of bills and not through submissions or uploading the bills through E-Governance. The Court proceeded to acquit all the accused persons of the said crime in absence of conclusive proof.
Prosecutor Sangita Goge represented the State. Adv Prakash Naidu, Homesh Chauhan, Mitesh Bais, Surabhi Godbole Naidu and Dhruv Sharma represented the accused persons.
