The Delhi High Court quashed the conviction of former Major General Anand Kumar Kapoor in the disproportionate assets case, holding that the trial court had adopted an unduly technical and hasty approach by prematurely closing the defense evidence without giving him a reasonable opportunity to cross-examine his remaining witnesses.
A bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh, in his 117-page ruling released on Wednesday, also found serious flaws in how the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) obtained punishment for prosecution. The court noted that the sanctioning authority was not provided with the full investigation record, and instead considered only the material the investigating officer chose to present to it.
“However, the trial court proceeded to close the appellant’s evidence without giving any further opportunity, causing serious prejudice to the defence. Unfortunately, the impugned order reflects that the trial court proceeded only with the aim of adhering to the timetable set for the conclusion of the case, without considering whether denial of further opportunity would cause prejudice to the defence. I am therefore of the opinion that the trial court adopted an unjustifiably technical and hasty approach in closing the defense’s evidence without affording the appellant a reasonable opportunity to finish cross-examining the rest of his witnesses.”
She added: “While the court was justified in discouraging unnecessary postponements, the facts of this case call for a more calibrated approach so that the speedy trial mandate can coexist with the equally important requirement of a fair trial. The sanctioning authority was not provided with the full investigative record. Only those materials which the IO chose to submit were placed before the authority. Accordingly, I am forced to say that the prosecution has failed to prove that the entirety of the relevant material collected during the trial was investigated before the sanctioning authority before granting The penalty was dated 09/29/2009, and therefore the penalty suffers from a lack of application of reason and is legally invalid.”
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Kapoor, who joined the Indian Army in 1971, was booked by the RBI in 2007 for amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income while serving in the Indian Army from 1971 to 2006.
In September 2016, a lower court convicted him under the Prevention of Corruption Act and sentenced him to one year of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of $50,000 and also ordered the confiscation of assets worth $2.22 Crores.
Kapoor challenged the conviction in the Supreme Court, arguing through his lawyer, Vivek Kohli, that the investigation was flawed and that the prosecution’s punishment was invalid, as it was awarded in just 20 days despite the investigation spanning more than two years and involving voluminous records. He also asserted that he was denied a fair trial after the court closed his defense evidence during the lawyers’ strike, even though only four of the nine proposed defense witnesses were questioned.
CBI Special Public Prosecutor Rajesh Kumar defended the conviction, asserting that adequate opportunity had been provided to Kapoor and that the trial court was acting in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court to complete the proceedings by September 2016. It was also said that the punishment was awarded only after due application of mind.
