NURUDDIN AHMED Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) <DJG>AJIT BORTHAKUR, J.</DJG>__ 1. Heard Mr. A. Sharif, learned counsel, for the accused-appellants. Also heard Ms. S. Jahan, learned Addl. Public Prosecutor, Assam.

(2.) This appeal under Section 27 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988,(for short 'PC Act') read with Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, has been preferred against the judgment and order dated 05.02.2013 passed by the learned Special Judge, Assam, Guwahati, in Special Case No. 03 of 2011 under Section 7 of the PC Act, whereby, each of the appellants was convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprison-ment for 2(two) years with a fine of Rs. 10,000/-, in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 6(six) months.

(3.) The prosecution case, in brief, may be stated thus: On 07.06.2007, the Executive Magistrate Anil Ch. Das of Kaliabor Sub-Division, lodged an ejahar with the Officer-in-Charge of Kaliabor Police Station alleging that as per information given by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Kaliabor, the officials of Veterinary Hospital, Kaliabor, while distributing forms of Kalpataru Veterinary schemes were taking money from the beneficiaries and therefore, the local people protested. As per direction of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, he proc-eeded to the place of occurrence and found the Veterinary Field Assistants namely, Abani Pathak, Archad Ali and Md. Nuruddin Ah-med taking illegal gratification from the public. Out of those officials, appellant Nuruddin Ah-med had fled away from the office premises and the two accused appellants were arrested. On the basis of the said ejahar, Kaliabor P.S. Case No. 65/2014 was registered and the case was endorsed to Police Sub-Inspector Debo Chetri for investigation. At the time of apprehension of those three accused appellants, it came to light that the Assistant Veterinary Surgeon Dr. D. K. Behera was also involved in that corrupt practice. During investigation, cash amount of Rs. 4,530/- was recovered from the possession of those veterinary officials. The I.O. on the same day recorded the statement of witnesses and then forwarded the accused appellants to the Court for judicial custody. The competent sanctioning authorities accorded sanction to prose-cute those four accused appellants. Thereafter, the I.O. filed charge-sheet against those accused appellants under Section 7 of the PC Act, 1988. On appearance of all the accused appellants, and after complying with the provision of Section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, charge under Section 7 of the said Act was framed against those accused appellants, namely, Abani Pathak, Archad Ali, Nuruddin Ahmed and Dr. Dhirendra Kumar Behera, to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.