CHENNAI: A simple, sentimental gift to a 10-year-old boy led to the collapse of a high-quality Corruption case against a Railway engineer. The CBI had falsely classified this family property as a financial investment, which drove up the fees and ultimately led to his parents’ acquittal.
Justice S. Ezhil Velavan found serious errors in the investigation against KSSVP Murthy Raju and his wife K. Pushpavalli. He ruled that the property was wrongly included and that the CBI failed to prove that the couple’s assets exceeded their income. The court subsequently acquitted the couple of all charges.
The case against Raju, a deputy chief engineer of the railways, and Pushpavalli spanned a decade. The CBI accused them of disproportionate assets total Rs 54.6 lakh.
The CBI’s investigation scrutinized every aspect of the couple’s finances, including pay slips, property deeds, bank accounts and personal gifts.
The focus of this investigation was a 92,900 rupee Real estate gift gifted to her son Sushanth at the age of 10 by a relative, G Nalini Mohan Raju.
This property was not a typical financial acquisition, but a sentimental family heirloom intended to secure the boy’s future. However, the CBI wrongly considered this gift as a significant Financial transactionand added it to the list of assets the couple allegedly could not account for.
This error inflated the family’s supposed wealth, which contributed to the corruption allegations against them. The inclusion of this wealth as disproportionate assets tipped the balance in the CBI’s investigation and made the case appear stronger than it was.
Moreover, the CBI made a mistake by overvaluing assets like a gold chain worth Rs 100,000 and miscalculating cash and investments like Rs 640,000 in a finance firm and Rs 220,000 in a locker. They also failed to check the records properly and wrongly classified gold jewellery and legitimate investments worth Rs 35,500 as disproportionate assets.
The defense uncovered these errors and proved that the property gifted to Sushanth was a non-financial transfer that was wrongly classified as a disproportionate asset.
Justice S. Ezhil Velavan found serious errors in the investigation against KSSVP Murthy Raju and his wife K. Pushpavalli. He ruled that the property was wrongly included and that the CBI failed to prove that the couple’s assets exceeded their income. The court subsequently acquitted the couple of all charges.
The case against Raju, a deputy chief engineer of the railways, and Pushpavalli spanned a decade. The CBI accused them of disproportionate assets total Rs 54.6 lakh.
The CBI’s investigation scrutinized every aspect of the couple’s finances, including pay slips, property deeds, bank accounts and personal gifts.
The focus of this investigation was a 92,900 rupee Real estate gift gifted to her son Sushanth at the age of 10 by a relative, G Nalini Mohan Raju.
This property was not a typical financial acquisition, but a sentimental family heirloom intended to secure the boy’s future. However, the CBI wrongly considered this gift as a significant Financial transactionand added it to the list of assets the couple allegedly could not account for.
This error inflated the family’s supposed wealth, which contributed to the corruption allegations against them. The inclusion of this wealth as disproportionate assets tipped the balance in the CBI’s investigation and made the case appear stronger than it was.
Moreover, the CBI made a mistake by overvaluing assets like a gold chain worth Rs 100,000 and miscalculating cash and investments like Rs 640,000 in a finance firm and Rs 220,000 in a locker. They also failed to check the records properly and wrongly classified gold jewellery and legitimate investments worth Rs 35,500 as disproportionate assets.
The defense uncovered these errors and proved that the property gifted to Sushanth was a non-financial transfer that was wrongly classified as a disproportionate asset.
