M.N. RAGHAVAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners, who are the 4th and 6th accused in CC No.48/2011 pending before the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Thrissur for offences punishable under section 13(2) read with section 13 (1)(d) of the PC Act and Section 120B of the IPC, are the petitioners herein. They challenge the order in Crl.M.P.No.241/2018 and Crl.M.P.No.240/2018 respectively.

(2.) The allegation of the prosecution is that, accused Nos. 1 to 6, who were the senior officers of the Irrigation Department, during the period 1996 and as such being public servants, abused their official position, colluded and conspired with accused No.7 who was the managing director of Karuna Plantation Private Limited, Nelliyampathy, submitted proposals for construction of check dams across Seethargundu stream in Nelliyampathy Panchayath at Karuna Plantation, Palakkad District, suppressing the fact that the sites of the check dams were situated in the private estate of accused No.7 and the owners of the estate and their employees were the sole beneficiaries. They allegedly misrepresented some vital facts, violated the norms stipulated in the Government Order pertaining to the construction of check dams and managed to obtain sanction from the Government to construct two check dams. Thus they caused a loss of Rs.33,11,507/-, being the expenses incurred, including the cost of materials towards the construction of check dams. They thus committed offences punishable under section 12(2) read with section 13(d) (1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and Section 120(b) of the IPC.

(3.) 4th accused was the executive engineer and the 6 th accused was the assistant executive engineer. Detailed facts of the case, as disclosed in the counter affidavit, is that a new scheme was announced in the budget speech for 1992 -1993 for the construction of check dams on experimental basis in the rivers of the State for storing water in the post monsoon months and to prevent drying up of rivers including Bharathapuzha. As per the decision of the government, a team of officers headed by the then Secretary to Government (Irrigation) and CADA visited State of Maharashtra for studying various aspects of the construction of the check dams and they, after returning from there, recommended to construct similar structures on river beds in Kerala based on the knowledge obtained from Maharashtra. Accordingly, chief engineer, Investigation and Planning prepared a scheme report for the construction of check dams. The scheme report was then placed before the working groups of irrigation department. The working group recommended the scheme. After examining the aspects of the scheme, government accorded administrative sanction for the construction of the check dams in the river basins of the state vide GO No.31/92/IRD dated 25/9/1992 of Irrigation Department(Minor Irrigation) (Exhibit A1 of charge sheet) Government has given 13 specific instructions in the construction of check dams through the above mentioned government order. One of the instruction was that the storage so created by check dam could be tapped by farmers through lift arrangement on individual basis or through farmers associations etc.