P. SOMARAJU Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Appeal arises out of the judgment and order dtd. 8/7/2011 passed by the High Court of Judicature of Andhra Pradesh at Hyderabad in Criminal Appeal No. 1540 of 2004. By way of the impugned judgment, the High Court reversed the order of acquittal dtd. 28/11/2003 passed by the Court of Principal Special Judge for SPE and ACB Cases, Hyderabad in Calendar Case No. 13 of 1999. The appellant, who was the accused before the Trial Court, was thereby convicted for offences under Sections 7 and 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988[For short, 'the PC Act'] and was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year with a fine of Rs.10,000.00 on each count.

(2.) The facts leading to the instant Appeal may be described briefly. The appellant was an Assistant Commissioner of Labour, Circle I, at Anjaiah Karmica Bhavan, Ashoknagar, Hyderabad from 01.01.1996 to 26.09.1996. The complainant, S. Venkat Reddy (PW-1) was a licensed Labour Contractor who had been operating two establishments, Swetha Enterprises and Sindhu Enterprises, for many years. In June 1997, the complainant made an application to the appellant in connection with the renewal of contract labour licenses for the aforementioned establishments for the year 1997-1998 and also paid the necessary fees, including a late application fee for one of the establishments, of total Rs.250.00. The appellant allegedly verified and signed the registers produced by the complainant but he kept postponing the renewal of the licenses on some pretext or the other. The nephew of the complainant, S. Prabhakar Reddy (PW3), had also sought renewal of license for his firm, Tirumala Enterprises, and similarly states that he met the appellant twice or thrice along with the complainant to renew his license, but after some delay, entrusted the matter to the complainant.

(3.) The case of the prosecution is that on 25.09.1997, the complainant went to meet the appellant in the evening. At that meeting, the appellant demanded a sum of Rs.9,000.00 as bribe for renewing the three licenses, failing which he would keep the renewals pending. Allegedly, a part payment of Rs.3,000.00 was made by the complainant on that day itself by placing the money in the appellant's tabledrawer and the remaining amount of Rs.6,000.00 was demanded to be paid within one to two days. The complainant approached the Anti-Corruption Bureau[For short, 'ACB'] around 11:00 AM the next day and presented a written complaint against the appellant (Ex. P1) to the Deputy Superintendent of Police[For short, 'DSP'] of ACB, U.V.S. Raju (PW-7). The DSP asked the complainant to bring the balance bribe amount in Rs.100.00 denominations by 2:00-2:30 PM.