Railway peon having ‘excess’ assets of Rs 34L gets 2 yrs in jail

Mumbai: A 53-year-old Central railway ‘khalasi’ (peon) has been convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment for amassing assets — to the tune of Rs 33.56 lakh — disproportionate to his known sources of income. Ambica (47), wife of the accused, Shivaji Naidu, and his brother Bhavani Prasad (46) too have been sentenced to one year imprisonment each for abetment as some of the tainted assets are in their joint names.
“The properties which are in the nature of disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 33.56 lakh, are forfeited to the state government...” special CBI ACB judge Vivek V Kathare said.
Special public prosecutor Ashok Bagoria cited evidence of 13 witnesses to seek conviction of the accused. The prosecution submitted that between 1991 and 2007, Shivaji amassed properties like flats and a shop. It said that during this period, of the his total income of about Rs 80 lakh, his likely savings were around Rs 55 lakh. The prosecution submitted that he had assets to the tune of around Rs 91 lakh at the end of the period.
The court held that Ambica abetted her husband, a public servant, by holding unexplained cash credits in her name. The court said that Bhavani Prasad also participated in purchasing properties either in his name or in the joint name with Shivaji from the ill-gotten assets amassed.
“When it is established that accused no 2 [Ambica] and 3 [Bhavani Prasad] were not possessing any source of income proportionate to the value of assets held by them, the logical corollary of abetment to commit an offence by the public servant by abusing his official position gets established,” observed the court.