New Delhi, March 23: The Supreme Court has cleared and reinstated an Intelligence Bureau agent who was charged nearly 25 years ago with involvement in smuggling.

Naman Singh Sekhawat’s official Jeep was intercepted by police on the night of August 5, 1983, in Rajasthan, where he was posted. Some 530 electronic calculators, 19 tape-cum-transistors and 1,767 metres of synthetic fabric from Pakistan valued at Rs 13 lakh were found in the vehicle.

Sekhawat, whose job as an IB sub-inspector was to identify and collect information regarding anti-national activities along the border with Pakistan, claimed he had found the goods abandoned near Gagaria, a village in Barmer district. He said he was taking them to customs authorities.

The driver of the Jeep backed his version.

But the police seized Sekhawat’s service revolver and lodged a case under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, the foreigners act, arms act and the customs act. He was charged with “conspiring” with smugglers.

A trial court acquitted him in 1991 after the prosecution failed to prove its case.

“Visit by employees of the IB to the border for discharging their duties does not amount to misuse of post or property and no such evidence has been presented that Naman Singh did not have the authority to go to the border for official work,” the court said.

Even the department had not “forbidden him from going to that place”, the court added.

But in 1992, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against Sekhawat on two counts. First, for misusing a government vehicle and weapon for an unauthorised tour of the border area (under Ramser police station in Barmer).

Second, for carrying smuggled articles in the government Jeep, which amounted to professional misconduct.

In the departmental inquiry, the police officers concerned were not examined, nor were any customs officers. The only person questioned was the driver, who said the IB agent’s predecessors also carried out their duties in a similar manner.

The driver also said another officer was requested to accompany them but had refused.

Earlier, too, the driver added, seized smuggled goods had been similarly handed over to customs authorities.

But the inquiry found Sekhawat guilty of misconduct and passed an order to dismiss him on February 2, 1993. His appeal against the order was rejected on April 17, 2000.

However, on October 23, 2001, the central administrative tribunal overturned the sack order and directed Sekhawat’s reinstatement.

A writ petition filed by the department against this order was dismissed.

The case then reached the apex court.

In its verdict, the court said it had not been “denied or disputed” that “obtaining intelligence reports as regards anti-smuggling activities was one of his functions”.

But it is “one thing” to say that Sekhawat was “over-enthusiastic” in the “discharge” of his functions and “another thing to say that he hatched a conspiracy to assist” smugglers, the court added.