Srinagar: FIR should make out a prima facie case of conspiracy against accused persons as one cannot have the construction of fine superstructure without a foundation, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh said on Monday, while upholding a 2022 trial court verdict that discharged eight accused - five engineers and three contractors - in a case registered by the erstwhile Vigilance Organization Kashmir (now ACB-Kashmir) in 2012.

The case had been registered on the basis of a verification conducted regarding 19 work components having been allotted and executed in the years 2007-08 and 2008-09 i.e. after the period of more than five years.

“No explanation in regard to the belated registration of the FIR has been spelt out in the charge sheet filed before the trial court under Section 173 Cr.P.C., more so, when the same was of significant importance, in view of the nature of the works in question as also vulnerability of the same to natural wear and tear over a period of time,” a bench of Justice Javed Iqbal Wani said.

“Be that as it may, perusal of the record available on the file, inasmuch as, copy of the charge sheet in particular tends to show that prosecution (petitioner) has enumerated 19 work components, claimed to have been inspected on multiple time by the Engineering Wing of the Vigilance Organization lastly in the year as per report dated 13.02.2018 and in respect of said work components figuring at Serial Nos. 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18, no loss to the public exchequer has been found caused to the public exchequer, despite the fact that said works have had been executed in Kacha in and around agriculture land in the year 2007-08 and 2008-09 and inspected between the years 2010-11 and 2018,” the court said.

Besides, the court said, record also reveals that out of the 19 work components, four have been reported in the reports as“non verifiable” for obvious reasons as the works indisputably have had been executed on Kacha soil without any concrete and had remained exposed to ordinary wear and tear over a period of time.

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