C.D.KATOCH Vs. STATE OF H.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These six Criminal Revision Petitions are directed against the common order dated July 15, 2000 recorded by Special Judge, Chamba Division, Chamba, whereby charges against both the petitioners and other persons under Sections 420, 424, 109, 167, 218, 120 -B of the Indian Penal Code and 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and Sections 41, 42, 32 and 33 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 were ordered to be framed.

(2.) The facts giving rise for the presentation of these Revision Petitions are that three cases came to be registered against 16 accused persons, namely, (i) Parkash Chand Anand (Forest lessee), (ii) M.S.L. Vaidya (the then Chief Conservator of Forest), (iii) H.C. Sharma (the then Principal Chief Conservator of Forests), (iv) R.A. Singh Conservator of Forest, (v) CD. Katoch (the then Chief Conservator of Forests), (vi) Teh Singh Jasrotia (Retired Divisional Manager), (vii) Purshotam Dutt Mishra (Superintendent in the office of Conservator), (viii) Gurditta Mai Abrol (Assistant in the office of Divisional Forest Officer), (ix) Atma Ram (Assistant Conservator of Forests), (x) Devi Lal (Forest Guard), (xi) Jodh Singh (Retired Block Officer), (xii) Vakil Ram (Forest Guard), (xiii) Sansari Lal, (xiv) Tek Chand (Block Officer), (xv) Rattan Chand (Forest Guard) and (xvi) Ram Prakash (Forest Guard), on a written report of Chief Conservator of Forests, Himathal Pradesh submitted to the Superintendent of Police, Enforcement (North Zone), Dharamshala inter alia stating that Lot Nos. 17/80 -82, 21/80 -82 and 6/81 -83 were sold to P.C. Anand (Forest Lessee) in upper Ravi Division and M/s. Friends and Co. during open auction at Bhadroia in February, 1980 for Rs. 33,50,000, Rs. 22,50,000 and Rs. 11,01,000, respectively. The lease period was also specified for completion of the felling and conversion of large number of Deodar, Kail, Fir/spruce trees. The forest lessee under the agreement was under obligation to pay the royalty and other dues by specified date. The extracted wood was removed in four ghalls (floating the timber by river) out of which, timber in two ghalls was removed by him with permission of the Divisional Forest Officer and the third and fourth ghalls were removed by the lessee unauthorisedly The lessees did not make payment of the entire price of the trees purchased by him in auction and had been getting extension of the period of transporting the timber on one pretext or the other. During investigation of First Information Reports registered by the Enforcement Department of the State, it was found that the lessee and the other officials of the Forest Department in connivance with each other forged the record of the department and intentionally caused wrongful gain of lakhs of rupees to the lessee and wrongful loss to the State of Himachal Pradesh. On completion of the investigation police submitted three separate charge -sheets against the above mentioned accused persons which are numbered as Corruption Case No. 1/98, Corruption Case No. 2/98 and Corruption Case No. 3/ 98 on the file of the learned Special Judge, Chamba.

(3.) The learned Special Judge heard the arguments of the Public Prosecutor and the learned Counsel for the accused persons before recording the order. On consideration of the entire material on record and the submissions of the learned Counsel for the parties, the learned Special Judge by order dated 15.7.2000 discharged M.S.L. Vaidya and R.A. Singh for the offences mentioned herein -in -above. CD. Katoch, Tej Singh Jasrotia, Purshotam Dutt Mishra, Gurditta Mai Abrol, Atma Ram, Devi Lal, Jodh Singh, Vakil Ram and Sansari Lal were ordered to be charge -sheeted under Sections 420, 424, 109, 167, 218, 120 -B IPC and 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and Sections 41, 42, 32 and 33 of the Indian Forest Act, whereas PC. Anand (Forest lessee) was also ordered to be charged for the above said offences except an offence under Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. H.C. Sharma, Tek Chand, Rattan Chand and Ram Parkash, accused persons, were stated to have since expired and therefore proceedings against them were ordered to be dropped.