Chandigarh, July 24: A local court has acquitted Krishan Kumar Chopra, an employee of the UT Estate Office, in a bribery case registered in 2019. Chopra had been accused of demanding ₹70,000 to update the lease installment status of a house in Sector 38-C, but the court ruled in his favour after finding insufficient evidence to convict.
The case, filed under Sections 7, 13(1)(b) read with 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, stemmed from a complaint lodged by Ravinder Kumar, a resident of Sector 37-D. The complaint was registered at the Vigilance police station on September 5, 2019.
According to Ravinder Kumar, he had bought the Sector 38-C house through power of attorney for his cousin Mangat Ram. The property, originally allotted to a man named Hans Raj, was leased with a monthly installment of ₹208. When Kumar approached the area inspector to get the installment status updated, he was allegedly told the update would cost him ₹50,000 — or the house risked cancellation.
Kumar claimed that after meeting the inspector, another individual introduced himself as Chopra and offered to handle the case — but allegedly demanded ₹70,000 in return. Kumar told Vigilance officers he recorded part of the interaction on his mobile phone and filed a formal complaint. Acting on his report, officials laid a trap and arrested Chopra while allegedly accepting ₹20,000 in advance payment.
However, during trial, the defence argued that the case lacked credible evidence and rested on a weak foundation.
“The complainant failed to support the prosecution’s case during trial,” said A.S. Sukhija, counsel for the accused, insisting that Chopra had been falsely implicated.
The public prosecutor, on the other hand, contended that the case had been established beyond reasonable doubt and the video footage and trap were sufficient to prove guilt.
But after examining the evidence and hearing arguments from both sides, the court acquitted Chopra of all charges, citing the prosecution’s failure to prove its case conclusively.
