The Supreme Court today quashedcriminal proceedings against former Union Minister C K JafferSharief in a corruption case involving alleged misuse of hisofficial position in taking his four aides to London with him.
A bench headed by Justice P Sathasivam scrapped it sayingthere is no evidence against Sharief to establish that he orhis aides got pecuniary advantage in taking four of his staffmembers with him on a tour to London in 1995.
The court observed it is difficult to visualise that headopted corrupt or illegal means to get benefit for himself orhis associates by taking them on an official tour.
The case was lodged against Sharief alleging that he hadcaused loss of around Rs seven lakhs to the public exchequerby taking his staff members on an official tour, which was notrequired.
The apex court passed the verdict on a plea by Shariefchallenging a Delhi High Court order refusing to quash thecriminal case against him.
Sharief had approached the apex court against the April11 order of the high court, dismissing his plea against atrial court's decision to reject a CBI closure report in thecorruption case against him and prosecute him instead.
Sharief had been accused of "dishonestly" ensuring thejourney of his erstwhile Additional Private Secretary B NNagesh, stenos S M Masthan and V Muralidharn, and driver C HSamaullah to London with him.
The case dates back to 1995 when Sharief, as a UnionMinister, had gone to London for his treatment and hadallegedly taken with him four of his staffers "unauthorisedly,causing a loss of Rs seven lakhs to the state exchequer."
A special CBI court had framed charges against the former minister on July 3 for allegedly causing loss to the publicexchequer during his foreign jaunt.
An FIR was registered against Sharief in 1998 by the CBI.
The agency, however, had filed a closure report in 2005 citingrefusal of sanction.
But the lower court had rejected the closure reportsaying it appears that the entire material collected by theprosecution had not been placed before sanctioning authority.
The CBI had again filed a closure report. The specialjudge, however, had declined the agency's request and hadtaken cognisance of the case under the Anti Corruption Act.