Supreme Court holds Rao and CBI legal advisor guilty of contempt, imposes fine of Rs 1 lakh on both
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Tuesday convicted and punished then acting CBI Director M Nageswara Rao and agency's legal advisor S Bhasuram by imposing a fine of Rs 1 lakh each and sentenced them to sit in the courtroom till the rising of the court for committing contempt of its orders.
The apex court held them guilty of its contempt for wilfully disobeying its order by transferring CBI Joint Director A K Sharma, who was probing the Bihar shelter home sexual assault cases, as additional director general of CRPF on January 17.
"In our considered view, it is a case where contempt has been committed by both the then acting CBI Director, M N Rao, and the director prosecution (of the agency)" a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said.
Holding them guilty of contempt of court, the bench, comprising justices L N Rao and Sanjiv Khanna, said, "We could not have done anything else."
It said, "We have heard Rao and Bhasuram for commission of contempt of court and we impose one lakh fine and sentence them till the rising of the court".
"Go to one corner of the court and sit down till the rising of this court," the CJI said.
Before passing the order, the bench told Rao and Bhasuram they have been held guilty of contempt of court and it was not accepting the unconditional and unqualified apology tendered by them.
It also gave option to Rao and Bhasuram to say something as the sentence for them could be 30 days in jail.
"Do you have to say something" the bench asked them.
At this point, Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for CBI and its officers, requested the court to look into other options as per the law and sought leniency for them.
"To err is human, to forgive is divine," Venugopal said.
Rejecting the defence of the two officers, the bench said though they have tendered an unconditional and unqualified apology, "we don't agree with the contentions raised by them".
During the hearing, the bench observed that Rao was aware of the apex court direction that the CBI officer probing the shelter home sexual assault cases cannot be transferred without its consent.
However, his "attitude is 'I have done what I thought was required'," the bench said.
"This is a blatant contempt of court. If this is not contempt of court then what is," asked the bench.
The court had on February 7 come down heavily on the CBI for transferring Sharma out of the agency in violation of the court's order.
It had also taken note of the violation of two earlier orders and issued contempt notice to Rao.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Bank account in Ramgarh tracked for fraudulent fund transactions across 24 states, 4 arrested
Ramgarh (Jharkhand) (PTI): Jharkhand police on Thursday said it has unearthed a network of interstate cyber frauds and arrested four miscreants for fraudulent transactions through a bank account in Ramgarh district after complaints of 274 suspected transactions in 24 states.
The states where complaints for fraudulent transactions were registered included Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
The action followed inputs received through 'Samanvaya portal', a centralised, web-based platform launched by the Union Home Ministry to curb cybercrime.
"We arrested four cyber miscreants after a current account with Kuju (Ramgarh) branch of the State Bank of India was found to have registered suspected financial transactions in 24 states with the help of the Pratibimba portal of the Home Ministry through the Samanvaya portal," Ramgarh Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar Lunayat said.
During the probe, police found that the account was opened under the MSME Udyam Registration scheme in the name of Shree Ganesh Enterprises, he said.
The account had been linked to as many as 274 complaints from different states related to cyber fraud and illegal fund transfers.
The registered proprietors of the enterprise were identified as Rahul Gupta (37), Ravi Kumar Verma (34), and Ajay Sharma (33), all residents of Ramgarh district, a statement from the Ramgarh police said.
During interrogation, Rahul Gupta and Ravi Kumar Verma revealed that they had opened multiple current accounts at the behest of Ritesh Agrawal alias Munna (40) and Sonu Kumar Jha (34).
They admitted receiving Rs 1.2 lakh in exchange for facilitating the opening of these accounts.
"The accused further confessed to sharing OTPs, activating mobile banking services, and handing over control of the accounts to the main operators through WhatsApp and Telegram groups. These accounts were then allegedly used to route fraudulent transactions.
Police said mobile data analysis of the accused led to the recovery of crucial digital evidence, including details of SIM cards, bank accounts, passbooks, ATM cards, QR code scanners, Aadhaar cards, and PAN cards shared through messaging platforms.
A total of four accused have been arrested so far and sent to judicial custody.
A case has been registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Further investigation is underway, the police said.
