STATE OF GUJARAT Vs. KANTILAL KESHAVLAL PARMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant State of Gujarat has preferred the present appeal under section 378(1) (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 against the judgment and order of acquittal dated 31.3.2010 rendered by learned Special Judge (A.C.B.), City Sessions Court, Ahmedabad in Special (ACB) Case No.39 of 2001.

(2.) The short facts giving rise to the present appeal are that the complainant is retired Assistant Public Prosecutor who retired in Mehsana District and his controlling authority for disbursement of money was the Collector and District Magistrate, Mehsana. It is alleged that prior to the complaint, 90% of the amount of GPF was withdrawn by him and 10% amount remains to be withdrawn for which he filed the application in the office of the District Magistrate for getting 10% withdrawal of the remaining amount. It is alleged that when he visited to the accused in the month of September 2000, the accused told him that since he retired for about four years back, he would have to pay Rs.10,000/- as bribe for getting withdrawal which came to be scaled down to Rs.7000/-. Thereafter, it was further scaled down to Rs.1500/-. However, the complainant did not want to pay the amount of illegal gratification, he approached the ACB office and lodged the complaint. The trap was laid on 15.11.2000 wherein the accused was caught red- handed along with tainted currency notes and thereby, he has committed the offence under sections 7, 12, 13(1)(d)(i)(ii)(iii) read with section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.

(3.) In pursuance of the complaint, the Investigating Officer carried out the investigation and filed the chargesheet against the respondent accused. The charge was framed against the accused. The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge and claimed to be tried.