PATURU RAMA RAO Vs. STATE (C B I )

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner after having been arrested in case RC No.3(A)/96/CBI/ACU IV under sections 120 -B and section 13(2) read with section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, has applied to this Court for being admitted to bail after his bail application was dismissed by the trial Court. A few facts which are relevant for purposes of deciding this petition in short are :

(2.) FOR the remaining 2,000 systems it was proposed by DoT to procure the same from all those venders having type approval at the rate of Rs. 3,45,000.00 per system. There were three firms, namely, M/s.ARM, Shyam and Punwire who were having type approval for 2/15 Marr system. The petitioner is the Managing Director of ARM. Smt. Runu Ghosh, the then Director FA -V, in her note dated 25th May, 1993 pleaded for placement of orders of crystal controlled sets saying that it should not cause problem and she recommended 1,500 systems to be procured from Arm, 500 systems from Shyam and 200 from Punwire at the lowest rate of Rs. 3,45,000.00 per system before February, 1994. It is also alleged in the Fir that as all the three firms were having type approval, a Price Negotiation Committee (PNC) was constituted and one of its member was Mrs.Runu Ghosh. During negotiations, the lowest price of Rs. 3,40,750.00 per system together with one spare unit of LNA was offered by Shyam and also agreed to by Arm on 10th June, 1993. In the meeting, it was highlighted by the other two members of PNC that the system based on crystal frequency design was of inferior quality as compared to synthesized versions but Mrs.Runu Ghosh did not agree with the minutes of the meeting as according to her it was not within the province of the PNC to assess the quality of the system. Moreover, according to her, the faults and advantages of the system were not discussed in the PNC meeting. Sh.N.G.Gupta, who was a member of the committee, was also at the relevant time DDG(RN), justified the price difference between crystal and synthesized version by quoting the DGS&D rate contract in which crystal version was cheaper by 34,170.00 vis -a -vis synthesized version. It is alleged that when Mrs.Runu Ghosh came to know about the approval of difference of rates between the crystal and synthesized version systems by the competent authority i.e. Member(P), she sent the file to Sr.DDG(TEC) for seeking certain clarifications without even consulting her seniors. It is also alleged that a letter dated 21st July, 1993 was received by Mrs.Runu Ghosh by speed post from M/s.ARM indicating the reduction of sales -tax from 4% to 2% by A.P.State. Government, however, no action whatsoever was taken by her in that regard. She is alleged to have submitted the file directly to the then Minister of State for Communications, Sh.Sukh Ram on 5th August, 1993 instead of receiving clarifications from the Telecommunication Engineering Centre. On seeing the file, Mr.Sukh Ram advised to procure the system within a period of week's time without making any comment on price reduction as approved by the Member(P). On a proposal having been put up by the Director of Mm Cell duly approved by the Minister of State, supply order dated 28th September, 1993 for 600 systems of synthesized versions and 300 systems of crystal versions was placed upon M/s.ARM at the rate of Rs. 3,35,639.00 and Rs. 2,98,469.00 respectively. Meanwhile, it appears that Arm requested to place more orders of crystal version at the same rate as that of synthesized version vide their letter dated 11th September, 1993. The request of the firm was received directly by Mr.Sukh Ram 560 on 27th September, 1993 and he observed "how are we offering two rates against the same tenders since we have taken both crystal and synthesized at the same price earlier - On these observations of Mr.Sukh Ram, the matter was again examined by the DoT and it was reiterated that as the synthesized version was definitely of a superior quality than crystal version, the price difference was justified. Mr.Sukh Ram, however, turned down the said plea of reduction in the price of crystal version, recommended by the PNC. DDG(PF) vide his note dated 9th December, 1993 suggested to get the rates redetermined after quick study of the relative merits of the two types of systems, however, Mr.Sukh Ram ignored all these recommendations and ultimately ordered for immediate compliance vide his note dated 9th December, 1993 for placing orders of crystal version also at the same rate as of synthesized version upon M/s.ARM. It is also alleged that by the aforesaid acts of Mr.Sukh Ram in his capacity as the Minister of State for Communications and Smt.Runu Ghosh in her capacity of Director(FA) being such public servants in conspiracy with amongst themselves and with owner of M/s.Advance Radio Masts Limited by corrupt or illegal means or by abusing their position as such public servants caused pecuniary advantage either to M/s.ARM or/and to themselves. It is alleged that by their acts, the Government had suffered a total loss of Rs. 1,68,00,000.00.

(3.) IT is next contended by Mr.Jaitley that even assuming the allegations to be correct, the State has allegedly suffered a loss of Rs. 1,68,00,000.00 which the petitioner without prejudice to his rights and contentions is willing to deposit with the Government. Moreover, according to him, during the search of his office premises as well as residence, nothing incriminating has been recovered from the petitioner and the only alleged incriminating circumstance sought to connect the petitioner with the conspiracy was the alleged recovery of two blank Signed letter heads of Arm from the office of Mrs.Runu Ghosh. It is stated that the petitioner is a respectable person heading a company employing about 1,500 employees with a turn over in hundreds of crores and there was no likelihood of the petitioner tampering with evidence as the complete case of the CBI was based upon the documents which have already been taken into possession by them. It is further his contention that the petitioner has already joined investigation and undertakes to join the investigation as and when required by the Investigating Officer and there was no likelihood of his fleeing from justice, as he was not only a permanent resident of Hyderabad but was heading a big industrial unit employing about 1,500 employees.