STATE Vs. KORRA RAMCHANDER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Criminal Appeal, under Section 11(1) of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 1944, and section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, is filed by the appellant, challenging the order, dated 20.02.2017, passed in Crl. M.P. No. 178 of 2016 by the Special Judge for SPE and ACB Cases at Karimnagar, whereby, the Court below, mainly relying on the judgment of the Karnataka High Court reported in H.C. Sathyan and another v. State by Police Inspector, Police Wing, Karnataka Lokayuktha, Mysore 2012 Crl. L.J. 387 , raised the attachment already ordered on the application filed by the petitioners under Sections 3 and 4 of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 1944, observing that the order of ad-interim attachment passed under Section 3 of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 1944, will subsist for only one year but the petition is filed after a lapse of four years from the date of order of ad-interim attachment.

(2.) The main contention raised before this Court in this appeal is that the decision in H.C. Sathyan's case supra cannot be applied to the facts of the present case, since the Court below is competent, by virtue of section 5 (6) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988; and, by following the decision in H.C. Sathyan's case supra, the Lok Ayukta took up the matter by drawing a different inference that the power under section 5(6) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, is conferred on the Lok Ayukta also, but the Court held that Lok Ayukta was not conferred with power to order attachment under Section 5(6) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

(3.) It has to be seen that that the Court below is a Special Court constituted for trial of offences punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Therefore, the decision in H.C. Sathyan's case supra has no application to the facts of the present case. But the trial Court on erroneous appreciation of facts and law, committed error in dismissing the petition filed by the appellant herein, by placing reliance on the decision in H.C. Sathyan's case supra.