Patna, Aug. 11: A special CBI court today acquitted eight people, including retired Bihar cadre IPS officers Ram Chandra Khan and Rajendra Sharma, in an over three-decade-old case related to purchase of uniforms for Bihar Military Police (BMP) personnel.

Also acquitted were Jagannath Prasad Yadav, who was then posted as assistant in the office of the DGP, Diwakar Prasad Srivastava, a typist at the police headquarters, and Ramesh Kumar Agrawal, Kailash Kumar Agrawal, Rajendra Kumar Agarwal and Om Prakash Agrawal, all suppliers, for lack of evidence. Khan and Sharma were then assistant inspector-general at the police headquarters.

Six other accused, including IPS officer Anil Kumar Singh, who too was an assistant inspector general at the state police headquarters, died during trial. Altogether, the CBI had chargesheeted 14 persons in the case in 1996. But the state and central governments gave prosecution sanction against only 10 accused.

The scam dates back to 1983-85. The erring officials were allowed to purchase uniform for assistant sub-inspectors of police, havildars and constables from the open market because of shortage of supply of uniform. The CBI registered a case in 1986 after the senior officials detected financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 37.5 lakh during 1983-85.

In 1980, it was recommended that the heads of the BMP battalions be able to make purchases from the local market to meet the shortage arising from the central procurement system. In the process, the purchases were allegedly made in violation of norms and at prices much above the approved rates and from traders not approved by the central purchase committee.

CBI special public prosecutor A.H. Khan said the CBI would appeal against the special CBI court judgement in the Patna High Court. "We will move the high court after going through the order of the court and analysing the evidence against the accused," Khan told The Telegraph.

Advocate Rajeshwar Prasad Sinha appeared on behalf of accused IPS officer Ram Chandra Khan while special public prosecutor A.H. Khan represented the CBI.

CBI special public prosecutor Khan said other cases related to the uniform scam were pending in the CBI court. The accused included two other retired IPS officers - Ajit Dutt and B.M. Diwakar. The judgment in one of the two cases would be pronounced on August 24, he said.

The fraud was first detected in Gopalganj district, headquarters of the newly raised 16th battalion in undivided Bihar. Later, similar complaints were received from the 8th battalion of the BMP stationed at Begusarai.