On Thursday, a special court in Delhi ordered the filing of corruption charges against Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal and other members for misusing their high positions to appoint Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers to various positions in the organisation.
The court also directed the prosecution of former Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) members Promila Gupta, Sarika Chaudhary, and Farheen Malick.
Court ordered framing of charges against DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal & other members for “prima facie” abusing their official positions to appoint workers of the AAP at different posts in the women’s rights organization.@bhavatoshsingh shares the latest updates. pic.twitter.com/203WNaV8ZE
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) December 9, 2022
Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh ruled the review of minutes of the meetings conducted on various dates by the DCW, of which all four accused were participants, were “enough to prima facie point to a strong suspicion that the appointments in question were made by the accused in agreement with each other.”
The case involves an FIR filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau against the accused in response to a complaint filed by former DCW chairperson and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Barkha Shukla Singh. The defendants were charged under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 13 (1)(d) (criminal misconduct by a public official) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The complaint stated that the defendants conspired to abuse their official positions and appointed AAP workers to various posts in the DCW without following the necessary processes.
According to the FIR, 90 appointments were made in the DCW between August 6, 2015, and August 1, 2016. Among them, 71 were hired on a contract basis, while 16 were hired for the ‘Dial 181′ crisis helpline. It went on to say that no record of the remaining three appointees’ appointments could be obtained.
The court stated that the circumstances “prima facie” clearly imply such a conspiracy amongst the accused while ordering the drafting of charges.
“After all, none of the three accused besides Maliwal ever objected to or gave a dissenting note to the illegal appointments. Rather the decisions were claimed to have been arrived at unanimously in those meetings,” the court further noted.
