STATE OF U P Vs. TEJ PAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a Government Appeal against the judgment and order of acquittal dated 20.1.1999 rendered by the Special Judge, Tehri Garhwal while adjudicating the Special Trial No. 8/1998, State v. Tej Pal Singh and 3 Others. The learned Judge tried the accused respondents Tej Pal Singh, Nand Lal, Pradeep Kala and Nanhe for the offences under Section 7 read with Section 13, Section 8 read with Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (for brevity, hereinafter referred to as the 'Act') nay the offence of Section 420 read with Section 109 IPC, PS Narendra Nagar, District Tehri Garhwal and after conclusion of the trial, all the four accused persons were acquitted. Hence, this appeal has been filed on behalf of the State.

(2.) CO-accused Pradeep Kala (respondent no. 3) died during the pendency of appeal, hence appeal against him was abated by this Court vide order dated 27.3.2012.

(3.) IN the first instance, since all the candidates belonging to the lower middle strata of the society facing a galloping problem of unemployment got the job, so they were initially scared and reluctant to disclose anything foul, but being encouraged by the speech of Superintendent of Police, one of the candidates got up and disclosed that rupees five thousand was taken by the Reserve Inspector of Police Tej Pal Singh from him in consideration for his advancement in the recruitment. Having been boosted up by the said disclosure of one of the candidates, another candidate Upendra Singh Bhandari also got up and told that rupees forty thousand was taken by the same Reserve Inspector through the sweeper Nanhe. Superintendent of Police immediately called the sweeper Nanhe, who was a Government Servant, posted in the police line itself, and asked to disclose the true facts. Nanhe was not ready to disclose the true facts, but when scolded by the Superintendent of Police, then he admitted the taking of rupees forty thousand and out of that rupees forty thousand, he had given rupees thirty thousand to Tej Pal Singh, Reserved Inspector of Police, rupees five thousand to co-accused Pradeep Kala, another mediator, and pocketed remaining amount of rupees five thousand as his own share. The Reserve Inspector was away from the headquarters on that day and was on duty at Kumbh Mela at Haridwar. He was immediately called by the Superintendent of Police from Haridwar.