Trial court acquits all accused in 2013 Ajmer ‘monthly bribe’ case

Ajmer: A trial court in Ajmer district Tuesday acquitted 13 cops—one IPS officer, an RPS officer, and 11 police inspectors—and two others accused in the infamous ‘monthly bribe’ case of 2013, wherein it was alleged that then Ajmer superintendent of police (SP) Rajesh Meena would collect bribes from all police stations in Ajmer every month through then additional SP Lokesh Sonwal and middleman Ramdev Thathera.The prosecution was unable to prove the charges against any accused and didn’t follow proper process during the investigation, noted the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court while acquitting IPS Rajesh Meena, RPS Lokesh Sonwal, SHOs Ashok Vishnoi, Ravindra Yadav, Banshilal, Khan Mohammad, Hanuman Singh, Sunil Vishnoi, Jaipal Dharaniya, Gopal Lal, Pramod Swami, Sanjay Sharma, Kushal Ram, businessman Hemant Jain and middleman Ramdev Thathera.The defence argued that ACB had pre-planned the case and registered three FIRs based on incorrect facts. All accused were on bail after being arrested in 2013. Prosecution lawyers stated that they would study the court judgment. In the 284-page judgment, the court did not find any accused guilty of the bribery charges. During the long trial, the prosecution had produced 90 witnesses and 300 documents but was unable to prove the charges against any of the accused.The case was one of the widely reported matters of 2013. On Jan 2 that year, an ACB team raided Rajesh Meena’s govt residence and arrested him and Thatera. ACB officials also seized the bribe money of Rs 2.05 lakh — allegedly collected from police stations across Ajmer to be given to Meena and Sonwal — along with a list of SHOs that was in Thathera’s possession containing all accounts of the bribes.ACB then went after Sonwal, but the latter fled and was on the run until his arrest in June 2013 after the high court rejected his anticipatory bail and directed him to be produced before the agency. Later, ACB teams arrested 11 SHOs from different police stations in Ajmer as well as one businessman who had allegedly bribed Sonwal. Meena was granted bail by HC on Jan 13, 2014.

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