RANJEETA Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal is directed by the appellant under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for brevity 'Cr.P.C.') feeling aggrieved by judgment dated 30/01/2019 passed by Special Judge (Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988), Ujjain in Special Case No. 14/2017, whereby the appellant was found guilty for the offence punishable under Sections 7 and 13(1)(d)/13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 ( in brevity 'the Act') and sentenced to undergo four years RI and to pay fine of Rs.2,000/- for each offence with usual default stipulation.

(2.) In short the prosection case is that at the relevant point of time, appellant-Ranjeeta Songara was serving on the post of Patwari of Halka No. 13, Village Tankariya Panth, Tehsil and District-Ujjain. Complainant-Balkrishna Patel purchased 1.5 Bigha agricultural land situated at Village Tankariya Panth from Ashok S/o Munnalal Khati by a registered sale deed and thereafter, he submitted an application for the mutation of said agriculutral land in his name. However, appellant-Ranjeet kept original registry with her and assured the complainant that she will mutated the land in his name. When mutation was not done, then complainant met to the present appellant, who made a demand of illegal gratification of Rs.2,500/- from him.

(3.) Since the complainant was not keen enough to give illegal gratification to the appellant, as a result of which he submitted a complaint on 20/06/2016 in the Office of Lokayukta, Ujjain and the case was entrusted to the Inspector Basant Shrivastava to verify the contents of the complaint. Inspector Basant Shrivastava gave a Digital Voice Recorder to the complainant and stated him for recording the conversation of bribe amount. Complainant went to the house of present appellant, where she made a demand of Rs. 2,500/- for mutation of agricultural land in his name. The complainant recorded this conversation and submitted the Digital Voice Recorder to Inspector Basant Shrivastava. Thereafter, he submitted complaint (Ex. P/3) to Inspector Basant Shrivastava. The transcript of conversation between the complainant and the appellant was prepared and the arrangements were made to lay a trap to the accused. A letter was written by SPE, Ujjain to the collector to send and to depute two gazetted officers so that they may be included in the trap party as panch witnesses. In compliance of the direction of the Lokayukta office, Collector, Ujjain deputed Vijay Kumar Sukhwani, Associate Professor of Engineering College, Ujjain and Ramesh Chandra Gupta, Professor of Govt. Polytechnique College, Ujjain. On 21/06/2016, these two Officers were present in the Office of SPE, Ujjain and they were introduced to the complainant. Thereafter, in presence of Panch witnesses, Dr. V.K. Sukhwani read over the complaint of the complainant and after hearing its contents, the complainant accepted the averments written in the complaint to be true and further admitted that the complaint is written by him. On the basis of aforesaid complaint, FIR was lodged against the appellant for the offence punishable under Sections Sections 7 and 13(1)(d)/13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 .