The Punjab and Haryana High Court has stopped the special CBI court from pronouncing its final verdict in the alleged 2014 toilet scam of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation till September 11. The order of the HC came while hearing the petition filed by one of the accused in the case, Ramesh Chander Diwan. As per reports, the CBI had, in December 2014, registered an FIR against eight persons in connection with alleged undue benefits given to Selvel Media Services Pvt Ltd in the maintenance of public toilets and advertising. The case was registered for allegedly giving undue benefit to the company in bagging a tender for the operation and maintenance of 86 public toilets and displaying advertisements on these between 2007 and 2012. “The trial may go on. However, final judgment shall not be pronounced till September 11, 2023, subject to the condition that the petitioner shall not seek any adjournment before the trial court”, said the HC in its order passed on March 22. The Bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara, meanwhile, clarified, “In case, the petitioner seeks a single adjournment, this order shall stand recalled automatically without any reference to this court under section 362 of CrPC.” At the Chandigarh CBI court, the alleged toilet scam case is at the evidence stage. As per reports, the scam caused a loss of Rs 13.66 crore to the exchequer, following which the CBI had lodged an FIR against three engineers and an official of Selvel Media Service. The scam pertained to operation and maintenance of 86 public toilets Ramesh Chander Diwan, a former Chandigarh civic body superintending engineer; Jimmy Subawalla, director and Bishwadeep Dutta, general manager of Selvel Media Services Pvt Ltd, as well as Mysa Ganesh, director of Outdoor Communication Pvt Ltd, have been named as accused in the challan submitted by CBI in the court. The two companies have also been made accused in the chargesheet. The accused have been challaned under Section 420 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120-B of the IPC.
