PERURI SREERAMA MURTHY Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Criminal Petition has been filed under Sec. 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for brevity 'the Cr.P.C.,') by the Petitioner seeking quashment of the proceedings in C.C.No.36 of 2019 on the file of the learned III Additional District and Sessions Judge-cum-Special Judge for ACB Cases, Visakhapatnam wherein he has been arraigned as Accused No.12, for the alleged commission of offences punishable under Ss. 403, 408, 409, 420, 465, 468, 471, 177, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for brevity 'the I.P.C.,') read with Sec. 13(1)(c) and (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (for brevity 'the Act').

(2.) Heard the learned Counsel for the Petitioner and the learned Assistant Public Prosecutor.

(3.) Sri D.Krishna Murthy, learned Counsel for the Petitioner submits that the Petitioner, Peruri Sreerama Murthy, is a retired Government servant who served the Irrigation Department with distinction for over three decades, having been appointed as Assistant Engineer on 5/12/1976 and having demitted office honourably as Deputy Executive Engineer upon superannuation on 30/9/2006. It is urged that the initiation and continuation of criminal proceedings against such a person, bereft of any credible or legally sustainable foundation, constitutes a manifest abuse of the process of the Court and warrants the exercise of this Court's inherent jurisdiction under Sec. 482 of 'the Cr.P.C.,' to quash the same.