New Delhi: A Delhi court has convicted two Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers—one serving and another retired—for assault, criminal trespass and mischief in connection with the 2000 raid and arrest of an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, The Print reported.
The convicted officers are Ramneesh Geer, currently a Joint Director in the CBI (then a Deputy Superintendent of Police), and V.K. Pandey, a retired officer who was serving as an Inspector in the agency at the time of the incident.
Notably, one of the convicted officers, Ramneesh Geer, is a recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service awarded in 2022.
According to the report, the case pertains to the arrest of Ashok Kumar Aggarwal, a 1985-batch IRS officer who was posted as Deputy Director of Enforcement in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Delhi during 1996–1998. Aggarwal had alleged that a CBI team led by Geer conducted a raid at his residence in the early hours of October 19, 2000, forcibly dragged him down the stairs and arrested him.
The complaint, filed in October 2001, led to the summoning of the accused officers in 2005 under provisions related to voluntarily causing hurt, mischief, house-trespass and common intention under the erstwhile Indian Penal Code.
As per The Print, Judicial Magistrate Shashank Nandan Bhatt, in his order, observed that the actions of the accused officers were beyond the scope of their official duties and were carried out with the intent to nullify a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order that had ruled in favour of Aggarwal.
The court further noted that the search and arrest proceedings were in violation of legal powers and appeared to be a deliberate attempt to deny the complainant the benefit of the CAT order and keep him entangled in investigations.
Charges in the case were framed in August 2017, culminating in the conviction of both officers. The matter has now been listed for sentencing on April 27, the report added.
