NARESH V. Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition is filed by the petitioner-accused No.1 under Sec. 482 of Cr.P.C. for quashing the FIR in Crime No.11/2022 registered by the Lokayuktha Police for the offence punishable under Sec. 7(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act , 1988 (for short ' P.C. Act ').

(2.) Heard the arguments of learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Special counsel for the respondent No.1.

(3.) The case of the prosecution is that on the complaint of respondent No.2 filed on 9/11/2022 alleging that he is an Electrical Contractor working at Bengaluru. He filed an application before the BESCOM on behalf of the customer to convert electric connection from High Tension to Low Tension. Thereafter, the BESCOM processes his application, conducted the field verification, recommended to provide electric connection and forwarded the file the petitioner. The petitioner visited the spot and reserved the file on his table. The complainant visited the office of the petitioner several times and requested to approve the electric connection. For the same, the petitioner said to be demanded Rs.6.00 lakhs as bribe, after bargaining, the complainant agreed to pay Rs.4.00 lakhs, out of which Rs.2.00 lakhs to the petitioner and Rs.2.00 lakhs for the Executive Engineer. The complainant was not willing to pay the bribe amount, hence, he lodged the complaint. Accordingly, the trap was prepared, the complainant went to the office of the accused-petitioner and while accepting the bribe amount of Rs.2.00 lakhs, he was caught red handed and arrested by the Police and subsequently released on bail. Now, he is challenging the FIR.