UMESH KUMAR CHAUBEY Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition under S. 482, Cr. P.C. the petitioner approaches this Court against filing of a report u/S. 173, Cr. P.C. against him by Special Police Establishment attached to Lokayukt Office, on behalf of the State of M.P. for alleged offence of being in possession, during the period of his office as Executive Engineer, Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board (1973 to 1996) to pecuniary resources and property disproportionate to his known sources of income which he cannot satisfactorily account for, punishable under S. 13(1)(e) r.w. S. 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

(2.) The only objection raised in this petition is that the investigation itself was unauthorized and without jurisdiction by the officers who conducted investigation, search and seizure. The officers in this case, undisputedly involved in search and investigation, were firstly; Shri S. K. S. Bisen, D.S.P. of Special Police Establishment and secondly Inspsector H.D. Mourya attached to the same organization. The investigation started with search warrant obtained from Special Judge, Raipur, from whom warrant of search was sought and the warrant of search was issued in favour of Shri Bisen on 6-5-1996 against this accused. According to the prosecution case, jewellery and documents about large properties in the name of accused and his wife and others were recovered and according to them the accused is source of the acquisition. All assets would be disproportionate to the tune of Rs. 22 lacs in comparison to his known sources of income. At the present stage we are not on the merits whether the assets were disproportionate or explanable as the learned counsel for the accused vehemently asserts that the known sources of income of this accused and his wife have been totally ignored by the investigating agency, but, that will be another aspect which is not to be gone into at this stage.

(3.) The main contention of learned counsel for the petitioner is based on second proviso to S. 17 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (for short the 'Act'). The whole section may be extracted at this stage with advantage :