Ahmedabad, Sep 6 (PTI) The Gujarat High Court has quashed a 2016 order of a special court which had rejected a closure report of the CBI in a case of alleged financial irregularities filed against the then chairman of the Kandla Port Trust and current Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Vipul Mittra.

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The copy of the order, which was passed on September 1, was made available on Monday.

Justice Nikhil S Kariel found the order of the CBI court rejecting the closure report and ordering fresh investigation in a case of alleged financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 6 lakh in the purchase of blankets for the Kandla Port Trust between 1998-99 as "unsustainable".

Mittra, currently serving as ACS of Panchayat, Rural Housing & Rural Development Department, had challenged the CBI court's order dated September 14, 2016, which set aside the closure report filed by the CBI after arraigning him as an accused even though he was named as an accused in the FIR filed under section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

"It clearly appears that the applicant had been joined as an accused erroneously at the stage of the second closure report, more particularly, without there being any material against the applicant," the high court said while quashing and setting aside the CBI court's order.

An FIR was registered in 2002 against five persons, including the then chief executive engineer of Kandla Port Trust NR Pai, senior stores officer BP Asnani, the then assistant clerk Mohan Ashwani, the then sub-engineer ML Belani, and M/s Hari Agency, for alleged collusion and causing loss of more than Rs 6 lakh to the KPT in the purchase of “Allcreel Blankets” between 1998-99.

The special CBI court first rejected the report submitted by the central investigation agency on October 26, 2004, recommending closure of the case on the grounds that there was no "malafide, misconduct or serious financial irregularities in the purchase of the item concerned at the instance of the accused."

The special court, however, directed the CBI to conduct further investigation, while observing that Mittra, then acting as the deputy chairman and sometimes as chairman, put up inconsistent notes and appears to have been misled by the notes put up by his subordinates.

Based on the court's order, the CBI arraigned Mittra as an accused and once more recommended a closure report to the special court on June 28, 2011.

The court once again rejected the closure report in its 2016 order and directed the CBI to further file the final report as per law against all the accused.

Mittra then approached the High Court.

The HC said in its order that there was a complete lack of clarity as to how the present applicant was arraigned as an accused in the first place.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)