STATE OF KERALA Vs. SRI.T.G.NADESAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A judgment of acquittal of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge (Vigilance), Thrissur in a prosecution brought under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 is under challenge in this appeal brought by the State. The third respondent herein and the deceased respondents 1 and 2 faced prosecution before the trial court in C.C.No.29 of 2000 on the allegation of misappropriation of public funds in connection with the construction of a check dam within the Thodupuzha Forest Range in 1996 -1997. The deceased first respondent was the Forest Range Officer, Thodupuzha, and the deceased second respondent was the Divisional Forest Officer, Kothamangalam. The third respondent was the Convenor cum Contractor for the work of the check dam. An initial estimate of 1,70,000/ - was made, and it was approved in 1995, but the work could not be commenced due to some technical problems. Thereafter, the deceased first respondent prepared a revised estimate after he took charge as Forest Range Officer, and he forwarded the said estimate for 2,40,000/ - to the deceased second respondent, who in turn forwarded it to the Conservator of Forests, High Range Circle, Kottayam. The Conservator of Forest submitted the estimate before the Chief Conservator of Forests, World Food Programme. Finally, the Chief Conservator accepted an estimate for 2,25,000/ -, and the construction of the check dam was commenced during 1996 -1997. The whole work was supervised by the deceased first respondent as Forest Range Officer. On completionof the work, it was properly check measured by the deceased second respondent, and an amount of 2,24,689/ - was paid to the third respondent, who undertook the work as Contractor cum Convenor. Later, an enquiry revealed some irregularities in the work of construction, and the forest department detected that the check dam is not useful to anybody including the tribals, and that the whole public money was wasted for such low quality work, and thus the public exchequer lost a huge amount of

(2.) ,24,689/ -. In the above situation, a writ petition came before this Court. As ordered by this Court, the VACB conducted an enquiry. The said enquiry was made on the basis of a report submitted by the Assistant Executive Engineer(Investigation) (PW3) in this case, that the State has sustained a loss of 1,04,910/ - in the said construction, due to the very low quality of work undertaken by the accused. After investigation, the VACB submitted final report against the three respondents. 2. Pending this appeal the respondents 1 and 2 (the original accused Nos.1 and 2) died, and the fact of death was recorded in the proceedings. Thus the appeal as against the deceased respondents 1 and 2 stands abated. Now there is only the third respondent to answer this appeal as the original third accused.

(3.) All the three accused pleaded not guilty to the charge framed against them by the trial court under Sections 13(2) r/w 13(i)(c) and 13(i)(d) of the PC Act, 1988 and also under Sections 409, 468, 471 and 477A IPC. The prosecution examined ten witnesses, and marked Exts.P1 to P17 documents. When examined under Section 313 Cr.P.C, all the three accused denied the incriminating circumstances, and submitted that none of them was in fact in any manner benefited, and that none of them had appropriated any amount from public funds. They did not examine anybody in defence, but Exts.D1 and D1(a) were marked on their side. On an appreciation of the entire evidence adduced by the prosecution, the learned trial Judge found all the three accused not guilty. The learned trial Judge found that what is at the most proved is the low quality of work done by the accused, and the prosecution does not have anything to show that any of the accused had misappropriated any amount from public funds. Accordingly, by judgment dated 30.09.2005 the trial court acquitted all the three accused.