BRAHM DASS, PATWARI Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant assails his conviction under Section 161, Indian Penal Code, and section 5(1)(d) read with section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. What has been accepted against him by the trial Court is that on 14.1.1985 he received Rs. 100/- by way of illegal gratification from Banta Singh (PW 2) for supplying a copy of the Khasra Girdaweri (Exhibit P 14). This conviction is undisputably founded on the statements of Banta Singh PW 2, the bribe-giver; Lal Singh PW 3 who acted as a shadow witness, Pritam Singh PW 7 who was a co-sharer with Banta Singh PW 2 in the land to which Exhibit P 14 pertained and whose rights and interests were common with the said PW and was also in need of the said copy of the Khasra Girdawari; and Vigilance Inspector Bahadur Singh PW 8, the Investigator. In a nutshell, it is one of the usual cases of detecting such crimes by organizing a raid by the Vigilance Department.

(2.) HAVING heard the learned counsel for the parties, I find that the conviction of the appellant is rather shaky.

(3.) IN his statement under Section 313, Code of Criminal Procedure, the plea of the appellant was that the case was a concoction and had been manipulated to wreak vengeance against him. This is what he stated :-