According to the prosecution, Prabhakar Haval had forged land records during his service in the Survey and Land Records office between August 2, 1957 and March 12, 1984, when he retired, and earned Rs 14.09 lakh in excess of his known source of income. Investigations revealed that Prabhakar's wife V P Haval and their son owned assets worth Rs 27.30 lakh.

Special Judge S P Kukday trying anti-corruption cases acquitted the Havals after the prosecution failed to submit any evidence against Haval for over eight years.

The Havals had moved the courts for acquittal relying on a Supreme Court judgement (Rajdeo Sharma vs the State of Bihar - October 8, 1998) which stated: ``In cases where the trial is for an offence punishable with imprisonment for a period not exceeding seven years, whether the accused isin jail or not, the court shall close the prosecution evidence on completion of a period of two years from the date of recording of plea of the accused on the charges framed whether the prosecution has examined all the witnesses or not within the said period, the court can proceed to the next step provided by law for the trial of the case''.

In his application, Haval argued that charges against him were framed on November 30, 1991, while his plea was recorded three days later. However, with no evidence forthcoming fro m the prosecution, the case had been adjourned till last week.

Opposing the plea for acquittal, special public prosecutor Manohar Kandalkar told the court that the delay has been caused by Haval and others, who moved an application before this court on October 10, 1992 to stay the proceedings in the case till the disposal of other cases the court was hearing.

Kandalkar submitted that since the offence is serious in nature and the main accused was a government servant, the applicationshould be rejected.

However, relying on the recent Supreme Court judgement which states that cases in which the trial fails to commence within two years after the plea of the accused is recorded, the sessions judge acquitted the Havals.