NAND LAL Vs. STATE OF H.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPELLANT Nand Lal has preferred this appeal against the judgment dated 28th February, 2007/2nd March, 2007, of learned Special Judge, whereby he has been convicted of offences, under Sections 7 & 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/ -, in default of payment of fine to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of six months, for each of the aforesaid two offences.

(2.) APPELLANT was working as Patwari in Patwar Circle, Kripalpur in Nalagarh Tehsil of Solan District, in the year 2005. One Shri Inder Singh of village Punjera had sold a piece of land to one Shri Subhash Chand, a relative of Shri Kulbir Dhiman (PW -12). Vendor Shri Inder Singh executed an instrument of Power of Attorney in favour of PW -12 Shri Kulbir Dhiman, a relative of the vendee, for the purpose of attestation of mutation, in respect of the aforesaid piece of land, purchased by Shri Subhash Chand. PW -12 Shri Kulbir Dhiman approached the Appellant for attestation of mutation. The latter allegedly demanded a sum of Rs. 3,000/ -, on account of illegal gratification, for the job.

(3.) PW -12 Shri Kulbir Dhiman was required to produce currency notes of Rs. 3,000/ -. He produced six currency notes of the denomination of Rs. 500/ - each. Numbers of those notes were noted down in Memo Ex. PW -1/B. Those notes were treated with phenolphthalein powder and returned to PW -12 Shri Kulbir Dhiman, with a direction not to fiddle with them till they were paid to the Appellant, on demand. It was demonstrated to Shri Kulbir Dhiman, in the presence of PW -1 Shri Balwant Singh, how solutions of phenolphthalein powder and sodium carbonate, when mixed, turned pink. Thereafter, PW -12 Shri Kulbir Dhiman was asked to go to Patwarkhana at Kripalpur to pay the tainted money to the Appellant. PW -6 HC Om Prakash was directed to accompany him as a shadow witness. Both of them left, on a Motorcycle, for Kripalpur. Shri Kulbir Dhiman went to the Patwarkhana, while shadow witness PW -6 HC Om Prakash hid himself by the side of wall of a temple, from where he could see what was going on in the Patwarkhana. When PW -12 Shri Kulbir Dhiman paid the money to the Appellant, shadow witness PW -6 HC Om Prakash gave the prefixed signal to the waiting Vigilance party, comprising of PW -14 Inspector Dhanbir Singh, Dy.S.P. PW -13 Shri Chaman Lal Kaushik and some other police officials. PW -14 Inspector Dhanbir Singh and Dy.S.P. PW -13 Shri Chaman Lal Kaushik then went to the Patwarkhana. Pradhan of the Panchayat PW -3 Ms Seema Chaudhary and Nambardar PW -2 Shri Gandu Ram were called.