JASPAL SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE present appeal has been filed to challenge the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 11.05.2005 passed by the Judge, Special Court, Patiala, whereby, the appellant has been convicted for offence under Section 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (here -in -after referred to as 'the PC Act') and has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year with a fine of Rs. 2500/ - with default clause.

(2.) BRIEFLY , the facts as per prosecution version are that FIR No. 1059 dated 14.11.2001 under Sections 7/13(2) of the PC Act at Police Station Vigilance Bureau, Patiala was registered on the basis of complaint made by Jaswinder Singh, wherein, it was stated that there was litigation pending between him and his brother regarding the partition of their house. A suit was also pending in this regard before the Civil Court. The accused -appellant contacted the complainant and assured that he will get his dispute settled and for that he demanded a sum of Rs. 10,000/ - from him. The complainant paid a sum of Rs. 7,000/ - in presence of his wife and assured to pay the remaining amount of Rs. 3,000/ - on completion of job. It was also mentioned in the complaint that the accused -appellant neither got the dispute settled nor returned the amount. The complainant, when demanded his money back, the accused threatened to get him implicated in some false case. The accused also threatened to get the son of the complainant kidnapped and killed. A complaint was also made to DIG, Patiala Range, Patiala in this regard. On the basis of complaint made by complainant -Jaswinder Singh, the accused was arrested after lodging a formal FIR.

(3.) THE prosecution examined as many as seven witnesses i.e PW1 - ASI Jagdish Chand, PW2 - Constable Rattan Singh, PW3 - Jaswinder Singh, PW4 - Kuldip Kaur, PW5 -Bhupinderjit Singh Virk, PW6 -Sandeep Kumar Sharma and PW7 -ASI Sukhdev Singh.