A former CBI law officer has been denied a breather by the the Delhi High Court, which rejected his plea for quashing the bribery charges slapped on him.
A bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice V.K. Jain rejected the plea of former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) deputy legal advisor Rajendra Prasad Dwivedi on the ground that the plea lacked merit.
The chargesheet filed against him by the investigating agency in July 2010 said that he took bribe from an accused.
“The writ petition is devoid of any merit and is hereby dismissed,” said the court in a recent order.
The CBI alleged that Dwivedi took bribe from the accused on the pretext of helping him get bail.
The court while delivering its order upheld the verdict of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) which rejected Dwivedi’s plea.
The investigating agency, with the approval of prime minister’s office, initiated the departmental proceedings against Dwivedi.
“Once the draft charge sheet was approved by the competent authority, it was not necessary that the memo of charge sheet should be signed by the competent authority himself or the charge memo should again be submitted to him for approval,” the court said.
Dwivedi moved court challenging the CAT’s order rejecting his plea. He contended before the court that a valid sanction was not taken to initiate departmental proceedings against him.
Dwivedi had taken voluntary retirement in March 2010.
