TARUN GARG Vs. CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) TARUN Garg has filed this appeal against the impugned judgment dated 18th December 2007 passed by the learned Special Judge in CC No. 67 of 2004 convicting him of the offence under Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 ('PC Act') and the order on sentence dated 20th December 2007 sentencing him to undergo rigorous imprisonment ('RI') for two years and pay a fine of Rs.25,000, and in default of payment of fine to undergo simple imprisonment ('SI') for six months.

(2.) THE case of the prosecution is that Inspector Vivek Dhir (PW -1) of the Central Bureau of Investigation ('CBI') received reliable information on 18th October 1999 that a large number of touts were actively functioning in and around the Regional Passport Office ('RPO'), Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi; that they were charging illegal gratification in connivance with the staff working at the various counters in the RPO for getting the work related to passport done at an early date and without objections being raised by the officials at the RPO. On the basis of the said information, PW -1 constituted a trap team comprising of himself, other officers of the CBI and three independent witnesses working in the Railways namely Mr. Vikas Chand (PW -2), Mr. Bohari Singh (PW -3) and Mr. Ram Chander (PW -4).

(3.) THE case of the prosecution was sought to be proved essentially through the evidence of Inspector Vivek Dhir (PW -1), the independent witnesses (PWs 2, 3 and 4), Mr. R.C. Rajpal (PW -7 ) and Sub -Inspector Mr. M.M. Ansari (PW -10 ) of the Anti Corruption Branch ('ACB') of the CBI to whom the investigation of the case was entrusted in November 2000.