B G GOSWAMI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant B. G. Goswami was employed as a Storekeeper in the Sewa Kendra run by the Delhi Administration for the benefit of destitutes and beggars. He has been convicted by the Special Judge for an offence under Section 5(2) read with Section 5(l)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. 1947 and has been sentenced to 15 months R. L. and a fine of Rs. 200.00 or in default of payment of fine to further imprisonment for a period of three months. He has also been found guilty under Section 161 Indian Penal Code and has been ordered to suffer 15 months' R. I, for the said offence. The substantive sentences of Imprisonment have been ordered to run concurrently. According to the prosecution, Madan Singh complainant (P.W. 1) held a contract for the supply of vegetables to the Sewa Kendra. The accused Goswami told him that if he paid him a bribe of Rs. 50.00 all sorts of vegetables supplied by him would be accepted but if he did not do so the vegetables brought by him would be rejected. The complainant promised to pay the bribe after a few days, but he had actually no intention to do so and therefore brought the demand of the accused to the notice of Shri Har Narain Singh. D.S.P., Anti-Corruption, on 7-1-1960. A raiding party was thereupon organised by the D.S.P. who invited Kewal Barn and Ram Rikh two officials belonging to the Sales-tax Department and some policemen to join the raiding party. Madan Singh produced five currency notes of Rs. 10.00 each of the numbers were duly recorded by the D.S.P. in his proceedings. The complainant was then deputed by the D.S.P. to pay the aforesaid amount to Goswami. Kewal Ram and Ram Rikh were instructed to remain dose to the spot where the complainant was asked to make payment of the money to the accused and hear the talk which was to take place between him and the accused and to observe the payment of the bribe. They were also instructed to give a signal immediately after the payment was made. A direction was also given to the complainant that he should make payment of the bribe within the sight of the witnesses and to convince them by his conversation that the money was changing hands as illegal gratification.

(2.) The raiding party then went to Anand Parbat where the Sewa Kendra is situated while the witnesses took their seats in Kiran Restaurant nearby. The complainant went to fetch the accused and brought him to the same restaurant, He ordered tea' and took a seat opposite to the accused. He told the accused that he had brought the promised amount of Rs. 50.00 but the accused replied that he would not take the money there. The complainant however made .over the currency notes along with his bills to the accused and the latter accepted them. On receiving a signal from the witnesses, the D.S.P. entered the restaurant along with two other policemen and disclosed his identity to the accused. He caught hold of the accused by the arm because the accused resisted the search of his person. The D.S.P. then asked the Inspector to search the accused. The notes Exhibits P-l to P-5 which had been put by the accused in the right pocket of his coat were then recovered from his pocket. The numbers of the currency notes were compared with those recorded previously and were found to tally. One of the notes (Exhibit P5) got torn during the course of struggle between the accused and the police at the time of search. The prosecution case is fully supported by the evidence of the complainant and the two independent witnesses Kewal Ram (P.W. 1) and Ram Rikh (P.W. 5).

(3.) It is true that both Kewal Ram and Ram Rikh who had been directed by the D.S.P. to hear the talk between the complainant and the accused, stated that they could not distinctly hear the conversation between the two as the radio in the restaurant was being played at a very high pitch but they both deposed that they saw with their own eyes the currency notes being given by the complainant to the accused and the same being recovered by the Inspector from the same right pocket of the accused's coat in which he had put them after accepting the same.