Six Former Employees of OU Acquitted in 30 Year Old Fraud Case
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court acquitted six former employees of Osmania University, who were accused of misappropriating varsity funds to the tune of Rs 1.50 crore during 1990-1993, by way of purchasing stationery and paying overtime allowances to employees.
According to the records, the allegations were that Rs 31,83,765 was misappropriated in overtime allowance; Rs 19,91,922 for purchasing printing paper; Rs 20,10,090 for purchasing stationery; Rs 13,92,000 for the purchase of computer equipment and an unaccounted Rs 6,08,000 towards alleged payments for supply of computer equipment.
Amounts were also drawn by way of self-cheques, which was signed by the then director of the university A.K. Gopalan, first accused in the case.
The ACB registered the case in 1994 and named 11 employees as accused. The then principal special judge for ACB cases, city civil court at Hyderabad, found them guilty and issued conviction orders in 2007.
Challenging the same, the employees approached the High Court in 2007. Four of the employees died when the case was pending.
Now the High Court acquitted six of them, while the appeal filed by Gopalan is pending.
The High Court , observed that in the absence of any proof and direct evidence against the accused apart from inferences drawn from the records there cannot be any conviction for the alleged offences.
“Not a single bank witness is examined to show that at any point of time, self-cheques or cheques of others were encashed by any of these appellants. The prosecution ought to have produced witnesses from the bank to prove that cheques signed by the then director were withdrawn by the appellants. In the absence of any such proof, the question of these appellants abetting the former director in committing the alleged financial fraud would not arise”, the court said.