Court pulls up CBI over prosecution sanction

In November 2012, Goel was charged by a special court after it took cognizance of the chargesheet filed by the CBI in July 2012

In November 2012, Goel was charged by a special court after it took cognizance of the chargesheet filed by the CBI in July 2012.

Observing that the accused “should not have been put to trial” as the sanction granted by the competent authority was “not legal and proper”, the special CBI court has discharged a chief manager of State Bank of India (SBI) facing trial in a disproportionate assets case.

Special Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna discharged Trilok Nath Goel, Chief Manager (Sales), accused of possessing assets to the tune of Rs 40 lakh disproportionate to his known sources of income. The judge observed that there was no “validity” or “sanctity” to the sanction granted by the competent authority as the “same is violative of basic principles and ratios of law laid down by various judgments of the Supreme Court”.

In November 2012, Goel was charged by a special court after it took cognizance of the chargesheet filed by the CBI in July 2012.

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During the trial, when Goel’s statement was recorded, where in all the alleged incriminating evidence was read over, Goel submitted that the sanction accorded by B Sriram, Chief General Manager of SBI was “invalid and bad in law”.

Goel argued that in May 2012, the competent authority had declined according of sanction at the first instance. It was only in June 2012, without any fresh material being produced, that the sanction was granted.

The court observed, “According to Sriram and the sanction order, the earlier view declining the sanction for prosecution was a tentative view…On examining the facts and circumstances of the case… I am of the opinion that sanctioning authority had no discretion to revisit his earlier opinion and there was no valid reason for change of opinion while granting sanction.”

Kaunain Sheriff M

Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies. With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health. His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award. Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time. Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More

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