GOURAV BANSAL Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the above titled three petitions have been filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking quashing of FIR No.6 dated 25.5.2016 under Sections 409, 420 and 120-B IPC and Section 13(1)(D) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (for short, "the Act") registered at Police Station Vigilance Bureau, Phase-I, Mohali, Punjab. Therefore, all these petitions are being disposed of with this common order.

(2.) Facts relevant for the purpose of decision of the present petitions are being taken from CRM-M- 24373-2018; petitioner himself was a candidate for appointment to the post of Junior Engineer in Punjab Urban Development Authority (for short, "PUDA") and admit card was issued to him. As per the prosecution case, on the basis of source report by Vigilance Bureau, Patiala, there was suspicion of leakage of question paper and on that basis, Vigilance Bureau, Punjab conducted an enquiry. During the said enquiry, it had come on record that Department of Local Government, Punjab had issued a public notice dated 1.7.2015 advertising various posts in the Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council, Nagar Panchayats, Improvement Trusts in the State as well as Water Supply and Sewerage Board. The examination for the posts of Junior Engineer (Civil) was conducted in the forenoon while for the posts of Assistant Corporation Engineer (Civil) in the afternoon of 15.11.2015 by Panjab University, Chandigarh. Result of the exam was declared and names of 19 candidates appeared in the merit list of Assistant Corporation Engineers. All those candidates had also applied for the posts of Junior Engineer as well as Assistant Corporation Engineer (Civil). However, on 15.11.2015, all these 19 candidates absented from the examination of Junior Engineer (Civil) conducted in the forenoon. A specific information was received that some of these candidates were taken to Lucknow where they were supplied question papers as well as answer keys. When call details of one of the candidates, namely, Sandeep Singh were analyzed, the same confirmed their stay at Lucknow on 13.11.2015 and 14.11.2015. During that period, another candidate, namely, Khushwant Singh kept his mobile phone switched off, but his father Balwinder Singh was found in regular touch with another candidate, Gaurav Sharma through his mobile phone whose tower location indicated that Gaurav Sharma was also in Lucknow. During further enquiry and analysis of answers of all these 10 suspicious candidates, it was found that they had shown similarity and even the answers which were incorrect, were the same for all these candidates. As such three FIR Nos. 4, 5 and 6 were registered.

(3.) During investigation, it had come that Gourav Bansal was desirous of getting job of Junior Engineer. For that purpose, he met Amandeep Singh through Amit Sagar, resident of Malout, who took him to Lucknow on 20.11.2015 where a kingpin Master Ji alias Guru Ji alias Pandey Ji showed him the question paper for a consideration of Rs.21.00 Lakhs, as a result he succeeded in clearing the said examination.