PUNE: A CBI court has discharged four former officials - a colonel, two lieutenant colonels and an assistant director - who were accused of sanctioning inflated bills to the tune of Rs 2.12 crore that the prosecution said benefitted middle-men who were supplying milk and dairy products to the military farm in Pimpri between 2009 and 2012.
In a 15-page order, special judge AS Waghmare, while discharging the officials due to lack of evidence, held that the central government had refused to accord sanction to prosecute them.
The CBI had claimed that nine people, including the four officials (who were at the time in-charge of the Military Farm under the defence ministry) allegedly made unauthorised payments of more than Rs 2.12 crore to a private firm using inflated bills.
The agency's anti-corruption bureau went on to register an FIR relating to criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under sections of the IPC and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act in 2016.
Defence lawyers argued there was no incriminating evidence for a trial to proceed and that the government had declined permission to prosecute their clients on the grounds there was no loss to the Military Farm.
The court upheldthe arguments by the defence.
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