Court refuses to drop DA case against Puducherry

New Delhi: A Delhi court has refused to drop criminal proceedings against former Chief Secretary of Puducherry C S Khairwal in a disproportionate assets case, saying proper sanction was granted by the central government to prosecute him.
The court said the sanction order contained sufficient material to proceed against the accused, a 1974 batch IAS officer whose services were later terminated during the pendency of the trial. “The sanction order is a speaking one which itself shows that there was sufficient material for proceedings against accused C S Khairwal for acquiring disproportionate assets worth Rs 3.15 crore for which he could not furnish a satisfactory reply,” Special CBI Judge Pitamber Dutt said.
The court also noted that the total income of Khairwal and his family members was computed as Rs 30.7 lakh from all their known sources of income while the assets acquired by him in 1996 were to the tune of Rs 3.28 crore, to which the accused could not give a satisfactory explanation to CBI.
“The disproportionate assets found to have been possessed by accused during the check period was over Rs 3 crore which was more than 10 times the entire income of Khairwal and his family members.
The said fact itself shows that sanction was accorded by the competent authority after satisfying itself regarding disproportionate assets acquired by him,” it said. Khairwal, had sought dropping of proceedings against him on the ground that the sanction to prosecute him was not proper. (PTI)