Chandigarh, Feb. 22 -- A trial court has cleared Haryana Civil Services (HCS) officer, Amrinder Singh Manais of charges at the preliminary stage, freeing him from facing trial in a bribery case in which he was arrested by the Haryana anti-corruption bureau (ACB) in 2022. At the stage of framing of charges, the court of additional sessions judge (ASJ), Ambala, Anshu Shukla in a January 14 order said "there does not seem to be any evidence against accused Amrinder Singh to frame charges against him. Keeping in view the vague allegations framed against him and the factum of false indulgement of the accused, being a case of no prima facie evidence against accused, as the chain of events is not complete, Amrinder Singh is hereby discharged." The ACB had arrested the HCS officer in 2022, accusing him of involvement in a bribery case while he was holding additional charge of district transport officer, Ambala during the leave period of the regular incumbent. An FIR was registered by the ACB on December 17, 2021, on the complaint of a transporter, Dev Raj with regards to corruption in Ambala transport department for allowing safe passage to over-loaded vehicles by allegedly accepting bribe money. The additional sessions judge in her order said it is on record that the competent government authority had refused to grant sanction to prosecute Amrinder Singh after due application of mind to the material placed before it. "However, subsequent sanction was desired to be granted by the chief minister only after the filing of the charge-sheet under Section 173 of CrPC which is ex-facie impermissible in law. Moreover, a doubt arises regarding the desirability of the chief minister in the case in hand as it shows the political pressure to involve Amrinder Singh as an accused for the reasons best known to him,'' the judge wrote. The defence counsel had contended before the trial court that the accused was called by the then transport commissioner in 2021 and told that IPS officer, Shatrujeet Kapur who was then posted as principal secretary, transport, was asking to transfer RTA inspector Ajay Saini and had inquired about his work and conduct. Saini is also an accused in the bribery case. "Accused (Amrinder Singh) prepared an office note and submitted it to him after which Ajay Saini was not transferred. Thereafter, Shatrujeet Kapur was posted as director general, state vigilance bureau (later named as ACB). Ajay Saini was on radar out of this professional vendetta and the police officers in vigilance and transport department hatched conspiracy and framed accused Amrinder Singh along with Ajay Saini in this case,'' the defence counsel said. The judge said that it seems that Amrinder Singh was falsely implicated in the aforesaid incident as there was nothing on record to establish his complicity in the commission of alleged offences. "His name has been implicated due to personal and professional vendetta due to vested interests. There is no prima facie evidence against accused Amrinder Singh, therefore, he should not face the trials and tribulations of regular trial,'' the court said. The judge further said that Amrinder Singh was given the temporary additional charge from November 1, 2021, to November 23, 2021. The raid was conducted by the vigilance bureau on December 17, 2021, when Singh was neither holding the charge nor exercising any control over the office concerned for making long term schemes to get any undue advantage. He had no official role or authority at the time of the raid conducted by vigilance bureau, so it seems that Singh has been involved falsely by the prosecution, the court said. Citing an October 28, 2022, letter of the state government, the court said that not obtaining prior sanction under Section 17-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act before proceeding against Amrinder Singh and before arresting him was a clear and apparently wilful violation of provision of PC Act as the case is neither of raid against Singh nor of being ex-facie criminal. "As per the settled position of law laid down by the Supreme Court, the prosecution has failed to bring any material record on file. Without placing any such material on file, the chain of events is not complete and this is one of the major grounds for discharging the accused in the present case,'' the court said. Additional sessions judge Anshu Shukla said it is settled law that at the time of framing of charge, the Judge cannot act merely as post office or mouthpiece of prosecution and can discharge the accused if no grave suspicion is against him. The trial court however found that a prima facie case is made out against the remaining accused - Ajay Saini, Gurpreet Singh, Karanvir Singh, Jaspal Singh and Sunil Kumar for commission of offences under Sections 7, 7A, 12, 13 (1) (b) r/w 13 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120-B of IPC, who are directly involved with the commission of aforesaid offences and there is sufficient evidence against them. The court on February 4 charged the five accused accordingly, to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. The case will come up on March 9 for prosecution evidence....