The Rouse Avenue Court acquitted a Mother Dairy zonal incharge accused of demanding a Rs 60,000 bribe, citing failures to follow mandatory CBI Crime Manual procedures during the investigation. The court held that the prosecution failed to establish the bribery charge beyond reasonable doubt.
The Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi has acquitted a Mother Dairy official accused of demanding a bribe from a milk distributor, ruling that investigators failed to follow mandatory procedures laid out in the CBI Crime Manual.
Special CBI Judge Vijeta Singh Rawat presiding at the Rouse Avenue Court, passed the acquittal order on September 22 in favour of the Zonal incharge. The court gave Sharma the benefit of the doubt holding that the prosecution had not established its case beyond reasonable doubt under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The case originated from a complaint filed on December 27, 2024 by Firoz Malik, a milk distributor working with Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd. Malik alleged Sharma threatened to terminate his distributorship if he didn't receive Rs 60,000 from the proceeds of extra milk packages given under a scheme that started on December 1, 2024.
Important procedural regulations outlined in the CBI Crime Manual, 2020 had been ignored by investigating personnel. The probe was conducted without SP's authorisation. Further, the car and driver records utilized during the trap proceedings were missing, and there was no record of the language used to obtain the complainant's statement. Special CBI Judge Vijeta Singh Rawat mentioned:
The Investigating Officer did not record the order of the Superintendent of Police through which investigation was entrusted to him or note down the registration number of the vehicles and their drivers used during verification and trap proceedings and did not record the language of the complainant.
The court also noted that the complaint carried no endorsement from the Superintendent of Police marking it for verification, nor was it assigned a registration number as required under Rule 6.12. This gap, the judge said, supported the defence's argument that the evidence could have been manipulated.
Read more about the case here.
Defence counsel Sanjay Gupta, along with Raj Kamal Arya, argued that Malik held a grudge against Sharma over the transfer of his predecessor and Sharma's alleged crackdown on Malik's parallel sale of Amul milk.
The defence also pointed to the appointment of a rival distributor in the same zone on Sharma's recommendation, and claimed Malik lost roughly Rs 20,000 a month in income from a milk transporter as a result. The acquittal highlights how procedural compliance under the CBI Manual remains central to securing convictions in corruption trap cases.
Read more about the case here.
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