Down Memory Lane

Criminal Cases

In December, 1976 my residence was raided by the police. Those were the days of the Emergency and no reason had to be given by the political higher-ups for arranging raids. The police raid lasted the whole day till late in the evening. Several other premises and offices were also raided as per the list finalised at Delhi by C.P.N. Singh, a politician and Kireet Joshi, an Ashramite turned bureaucrat. The Lt. Governor of Pondicherry became the Chairman of the Auroville Enquiry Committee which appointed a high ranking IAS Officer to go into the accounts and other seized documents. After a thorough enquiry, the officer concerned made his detailed report, and gave the finding of no misappropriation, no embezzlement.

A second attempt was made in 1980 by the same persons when they regained political power. On the complaint of Kireet Joshi as the Educational Adviser, Government of India, the CBI made investigations that lasted till February, 1982.

I was interrogated by the CBI for weeks from morning to evening, sometimes till late in the evenings. The CBI was fully satisfied with the accounts and documents, but on 20-10-82 they framed—or, as it was learnt later, were made to frame—three charge sheets. The first case was filed against Amar Singh and myself (case NO. SPE 13 of 82) at Bhubaneshwar in the court of the Addl. Chief Judicial Magistrate. The remaining two cases were filed in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Pondicherry bearing CC Nos. 354 and 355 of 1982. One was against myself and an ex-employee of Sri Aurobindo Society, the other against Sri Aurobindo Society and myself. Thus I was implicated in all the three cases.

A big number of papers were filed and a big number of witnesses cited by the prosecution.

The case at Bhubaneshwar related to grants of two lakhs of rupees by the Orissa Government to Sri Aurobindo Society at Pondicherry for construction of Orissa pavilion at Auroville. The sum of two lakhs was made of two grants of one lakh each. The

Page 96

prosecution story was that I gave false Utilisation Certificates stating that the money was spent for the purpose for which it was received and misled the Orissa Government into releasing a further grant. For making out this story, the prosecution suppressed the audit report of the audit team of the Orissa Government which had come in the normal course to Pondicherry to verify the grant money's expenditure and on receipt of which the Government of Orissa had released a further grant of two lakhs. Further, the Orissa Government made a physical inspection of the building at Auroville through its own engineers' team and closed the file in spite of the pressure of the CBI. This fact also the CBI did not state.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate dismissed the case.

While discharging us, the Chief Judicial Magistrate observed, "The Government file, produced by the defence, which has been seized during the course of investigation, would reveal that the Government of Orissa was all through taking steps to know whether the amount has actually been spent or the accused persons had misappropriated the same and they were fully convinced from the reports narrated above,"

Dismissing the revision petition of the CBI, the Orissa High Court observed in November 1990,

"For ends of justice, I feel that the matter should not proceed further as it is likely to cause abuse of process of law."

One of the two cases at Pondicherry was for misappropriation of about Rs. 33,000. I was charged with conspiracy with the second accused who was alleged to have misappropriated. In this case the CBI did not suppress any fact or paper. The Magistrate found that there was no prima face case at all and that there was not even a whisper of any witness against myself about the alleged conspiracy, and discharged both the accused. After protracted proceedings in the Madras High Court and back in the Magistrate's Court, the order of discharge became final in July 1991, when the CBI did not want to proceed further.

The third case was for alleged criminal breach of trust in respect of more than fifteen lakhs of rupees of Government grants. The Central Government and several States had given more than seventy lakhs as grants for construction of Bharat Nivas (cultural pavilions) at Auroville. The CBI found that all the grant monies had been recorded as received by the Sri

Page 97

Aurobindo Society in its account books which were audited every year. However, according to the CBI the unspent balance of about fifteen lakhs was not matched by its liquid assets. They did not find a single irregularity in the receipts or expenditure, yet it concluded that because of its not being matched by liquid assets, the unspent balance was not accounted for and there was a criminal breach of trust. For making this story they suppressed the fact that the entire unspent balance was lying in the overdraft current account in the State Bank of India. Secondly, in other bank accounts of the Society there were more than fifteen 15 lakhs of rupees. After protracted proceedings in the Magistrate's court as well as in the Madras High Court, the Magistrate acquitted us and while doing so passed strictures against Kireet Joshi and the CBI.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate observed in his order of acquittal:

"As a matter of fact no governments, either State or Central, have come forward with any allegations of misappropriation of funds or mismanagement... As rightly pointed out by the learned counsel for the defence there are bigger forces behind and the accused have been unnecessarily harassed and humiliated and there was no dishonest intention at all at any point of time... Taking into consideration the entire facts and circumstances of the case I find that there is absolutely no failure to account on the part of the accused."

About me in particular the Magistrate had added that the FIR did not whisper any omission or commission on my part.

Lastly, on 6.2.84, the Administrator of Auroville in consultation with Kireet Joshi, filed a criminal case at Tindivanam ( case No. 33 of 84) before the Ilnd class Addl. Judicial Magistrate against my son and daughter, Saphala and Manju for alleged non-delivery of documents and papers relating to the Service Trust's unit Aurodia to the Government Administrator for Auroville under Sec 15 of the

Provisions Act 1980.

In fact everything had been duly given to the Administrator. The case ended in acquittal.

Page 98