BUDH SAGAR RAM UDIT Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Budh Sagar aged 27, resident of village Jamunahi, police station Itiathok, district Gonda has been found guilty of an offence under Section 5 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Central Act II of 1947) read with Section 5(2) of the same Act and has been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for two years and has been directed to pay a fine of Rs. 200/- with four months* further rigorous imprisonment in default. Against his conviction, sentence and fine, he has preferred this appeal. The appeal came up for hearing before one of us and a reference was made to a Bench in view of certain observations made by a learned Single Judge in the case of Ram Pukar Singh v. State. AIR 1954 All 223. Today we have heard the learned counsel for the appellant and the learned counsel for the State.

(2.) The prosecution case, in brief, is that Budh Sagar was an Amin in the Irrigation Department attached to Kohargaddi reservoir, police station Pachhperwa, district Gonda in October, 1958. Village Gurchihwa was within his circle and the scheduled rate of Rs. 1/9/- per bigha for irrigation of fields applied to that village. The scheduled rate applies only to villages where the tenants have the option of irrigating their fields or not. A flat rate applies to villages where no such option is allowed and whether the tenants irrigate their fields or not, they have to pay the irrigation charges at the flat rate of -/5/- per bigha. The prosecution further alleges that the tenants of village Gurchihwa did not irrigate their fields as the rate was high, it had rained towards the end of September and in the beginning of October 1958 and they were told by the Engineer that the water would first be supplied to villages subject to flat rate of charges. In any case, the allegation is that Budh Sagar went to village Gurchihwa on 10th October, 1958, at about noon and threatened to measure the area of Jand which the tenants had irrigated from the canal. He even, started making certain measurements in the fields of Zakat Mohammad, Mohammad Aqbal and several others. There were pro-tests and then the appellant demanded a sum of Rs. 50/- from Zakat Mohammad as bribe. After some higgling, a settlement was made at Rs. 50/-. Zakat Mohammad promised to pay the amount when he had arranged for the money. He, however, went to his cousin, Mohammad Naseera Khan and Rupendra Nath Gupta, the Secretary and the President of the Praja Samaj Party respectively. After consulting them, he came to Gonda and gave a written report Ext. ka 1 to the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Complaints) on 13-10-1958. P. W. 6 R. N. Tyagi obtained the Deputy Commissioner's permission for investigation and to lay a trap. Zakat Mohammad paid the sum of Rs. 30/-, in notes of which numbers had been previously noted, to the appellant at the house of Abinash Chandra Patrol. As soon as Zakat Mohammad came out of that house, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (complaints) R. N. Tyagi P. W. 6, Lalji Govind Rao, Station Officer, police station Pachhperwa, P. W. 5, and K. M. Munshi Circle Inspector accompanied by two other persons entered the house and told the accused that they would search his person. The accused said nothing and it is stated that three currency notes of Rs. 10/- each were recovered from his closed fist. A report was then lodged at police station Pachhperwa and finally a charge-sheet was submitted against the appellant on 21st December, 1958.

(3.) For our purposes it is not necessary to give the defence in detail. It is sufficient to state that the accused's case was that he had not taken the money and that Zakat Mohammad had only told him that the money was meant for the Ziledar as advance rent in respect of certain land ordinarily covered by the reservoir but available for cultivation when the level of the water goes down.