BALKRISHNA BHAU DESAI Vs. THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant, who was, at the material time, working as a Sectional Engineer in the Public Works Department, Indapur, Sub-Division, Pune, was prosecuted on the allegation of having committed offences punishable under section 7 and Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The learned Special Judge, Baramati, after holding a trial, found the appellant guilty of the aforesaid offences and sentenced him to suffer Rigorous Imprisonment for one year and to pay a fine of Rs.2,000/-on each count, in default to suffer Simple Imprisonment for six months. Being aggrieved by the Judgment of conviction as delivered by the learned Special Judge, Baramati and the sentences imposed by him, the appellant has approached this Court by filing the present Appeal.

(2.) The prosecution case, as put forth before the trial Court, in brief, may be stated thus :

(3.) In order to establish its case, the prosecution examined four witnesses during the trial. The first witness, as aforesaid, is Bharat Raje-Bhosale, the First Informant. The second witness Rashid Gafur Sayyed, Deputy Secretary (PWD) is the one who had signed the sanction order issued under section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. (hereinafter 'P C. Act' for brevity). The third witness Ramchandra Jadhav it may be recalled is a panch in respect of the pre-trap and post-trap panchnama, and the fourth witness Satish Ahire, Inspector of Police, is the trap laying officer.