STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH Vs. VIJAY SHAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) State has preferred this appeal against the judgment dated 5.3.1999 passed by learned Judicial Magistrate First Class, Harsud (Shri A.K.Pandey) in criminal case No.24/1992 whereby the respondent was acquitted from the charges of the offence punishable under sections 131, 132 and 135 of Representation of the People Act.

(2.) Prosecution's case, in short, is that, on 12.6.1991 Shri Harnath Singh (P.W.8) was working as a Presiding Officer in Polling booth No.119 at village Aawaliya. At about 4.30 p.m. in the afternoon, the respondent entered in the polling booth with 2 unknown persons and he snatched 70 ballot papers from the Presiding Officer and marked those Criminal Appeal No.1620 of 2001 ballot papers in favour of his party's candidate and pushed those ballot papers in the ballot box. Thereafter, the respondent fled away. Harnath Singh could not leave the polling booth according to the rules. He tried to contact the Sector Magistrate as well as the Returning Officer but, he could not contact them. At about 9.30 p.m., the Zonal officer Shri Pateriya came to the spot and the polling officer Shri Harnath Singh gave him a written report and with help of the Zonal officer, that written report was given to the incharge Outpost Roshni, Police Station Khalwa, District Khandwa. A case was registered against the respondent. After due investigation, a charge-sheet was filed before the trial Court.

(3.) The respondent abjured his guilt. He took a specific plea that he was falsely implicated in the matter. He was a sitting MLA at that time and he was not a candidate for the election and therefore, he was not required to do such type of false voting. On the contrary, he visited the house of Dr.Surendra Trivedi on that day and he was away from the spot at the time of the incident. He has also stated that a similar false report was lodged against him by Shri Kalicharan Sakargay, the then President, District Congress and a final report was submitted by the police because report lodged by Shri Sakargay was baseless. In support of his contention, one Mahendra Kumar Karahe (D.W.1), Shyam Singh (D.W.2), Dr.Surendra Trivedi (D.W.3) and Ramadhar Dhurve (D.W.4) were examined.