A special CBI court in Mumbai has discharged five former Jet Airways pilots in a provident fund corruption case, ruling that the material did not show they paid money to obtain an out-of-turn benefit while their claims were being processed by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
Special judge Nikhil P Mehta passed separate orders on Wednesday and Thursday allowing the discharge applications filed by Baikunth Nayak, Kakarlapudi Kumar, Bejoy James, Sam Thomas and Kedar Gokhale. The case concerned alleged payments made to accounts linked to Machindra Bamne, then a senior social security assistant and dealing assistant in the accounts section of EPFO’s Kandivli East regional office, and his wife Rupali.
The court held that the five applicants were not shown to have received preferential treatment. “There is no bypassing of any fair procedure,” the judge said, adding that their claims were not settled out of turn by Bamne. The court further observed that the claims were settled belatedly and that the applicants were compelled to deposit money before their claims could be processed.
According to the court’s reasoning, the payments could be treated as an undue advantage for Bamne, but the applicants had allegedly paid in order to have a public duty performed properly rather than to secure an improper preference. The judge said the relevant provision of the Prevention of Corruption Act would apply where an out-of-turn preference was given after receipt of an undue advantage, and where the payment was not compelled.
The CBI case was based on allegations that Bamne accepted illegal gratification from provident fund claimants. R W Syiem, Regional Provident Fund Commissioner-I (Vigilance), EPFO, alleged that money was transferred online to bank accounts held by Bamne and his wife by employees of different establishments for processing PF settlements.
The prosecution alleged that suspicious credits totalling Rs 1.77 lakh were received in accounts linked to the couple from Jet Airways employees between 2019 and 2021. It alleged that Bamne obtained undue advantage from 13 private persons, including the five pilots. The individual allegations involved payments ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 40,000 and claims ranging from Rs 1.04 lakh to Rs 1.64 crore.
The court also considered the applicants’ failure to report the payments to law-enforcement authorities. It held that this omission, by itself, was not sufficient to prosecute them under the Prevention of Corruption Act because they were not aware of the relevant legal provision and had allegedly been compelled to make the payments.
The CBI relied on the statement of EPFO official Hemant Lokhande, who said Jet Airways employees visited the Kandivli office to meet Bamne. The prosecution alleged that Bamne took bribes from Jet Airways claimants and that disputes arose in the office after claims were rejected on what employees considered trivial grounds. It also argued that the applicants had not adequately explained how they came into contact with Bamne or the consultancy allegedly operated by his wife.
The discharge orders remove the five former pilots from the case. The allegations concerning Bamne and the wider PF claim-processing arrangements were part of the prosecution’s case as described in the court proceedings.
