HYDERABAD: A city court recently dismissed a case of cheating registered at the Bowenpally police station against a man impersonating a senior IAS officer in the general administration department at the state secretariat. The accused, posing as a bureaucrat, deceived a property developer under the pretext of facilitating the development of his sister’s plot, located in a prime area of Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad. The 52-year-old accused had collected cheques amounting to 4 lakh as payment for the alleged plot sale. The cheques were issued as advance payment to the accused by the property developer under an agreement.Although the case initially included the accused’s sister—whom he claimed was a paediatrician based in the USA—and a mutual friend, the police eventually filed a chargesheet only against the accused. The names of others were dropped from the case.A Secunderabad court, which recently concluded the case originating in July 2016, observed that the police had failed to verify the accused’s actual employment status. They also did not inspect the plot in Jubilee Hills, nor did they collect any documentation related to the land or the alleged development agreement between the accused and the developer, including details of the cheques.While the builder did issue cheques to the accused and the amounts were credited to the latter’s bank account, no bank statements were submitted as evidence to corroborate the financial transactions between the two parties. The builder also did not clarify the nature of the land documents he claimed to have received from the accused, the court noted.Citing the absence of independent witnesses and a lack of documentary evidence, the court ruled that the benefit of the doubt must go to the accused, thereby acquitting him.
