DHARMENDER KUMAR Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Instant appeal has been preferred against Judgment dated 10.7.2015 rendered by the learned Special Judge, Mandi, District Mandi (HP) in Sessions Trial No. 14/2011, whereby appellant-accused (hereinafter referred to as 'accused' for convenience sake), who was charged with and tried for the commission of offence under Sections 7 and 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, was convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of three years and to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/- under Sections 7 & 13 (1)(d) punishable under Section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and in default of payment of fine, to further undergo simple imprisonment for six months.

(2.) Case of the prosecution, in a nutshell, is that the accused was posted as Assistant Engineer, Electrical Sub Division, Mandi and was in charge of the work to be executed in Judicial Court Complex Mandi. PW-14 Dheeraj Kumar was electrical contractor in electrical wing of PWD and was awarded work of electrical fixture in the Court complex in the year 2005 vide agreement No. 47 of 2005-06. Work was awarded for a total sum of Rs. 4,40,000/-. PW-14 received all the payments except final bill of Rs. 56,000/-, which was verified by Netar Singh, Junior Engineer on 25.11.2009 and thereafter was pending for verification and payment with the accused. Accused demanded a sum of Rs. 1800/- from the complainant, as bribe for passing the bill. PW-14 Dheeraj Kumar approached the Vigilance Police on 23.12.2009. FIR Ext. PW-13/A was registered. PW-15 Bhupinder Singh, Additional Superintendent of Police, conducted demonstration of pre-trap proceedings in the presence of PW-14 Dheeraj Kumar, PW-13 Inspector Mohinder Kumar, PW-2 Rajinder Kumar and PW-10 Jitender Singh (shadow witness). Solutions of Sodium Carbonate and Phenolphthalein powder were prepared. Their colour did not change. When they were mixed, the colour changed to light pink. Solutions were destroyed in the presence of the witnesses. Thereafter, Phenolphthalein powder and Sodium Carbonate powder were separately packed into two small paper packets, these were put into separate match boxes and match boxes were sealed in two separate cloth parcels sealed with seal impression "T" at seven places. Sample seal Ext. PW-10/D was drawn and seal after its use was handed over to the shadow witness. Complainant handed over bribe money i.e. currency notes of Rs. 1000/-, Rs. 500 and three notes of Rs. 100/- to the Investigating Officer. Those were smeared with Phenolphthalein powder. The numbers of the currency notes were noted down on memo Ext. PW- 10/B. Thereafter, the Investigating Officer instructed the complainant to handover the currency notes to the accused on his demand. PW-10 Jitender Singh was associated as shadow witness to give prefixed signal after acceptance of bribe money by the accused. Thereafter, raiding party was formed and their hands were washed vide memo Ext. PW-10/C in the presence of complainant, Dheeraj Kumar and Jitender Kumar. Thereafter, complainant and shadow witness went to the office of the accused. Complainant inquired about his bill and accused demanded bribe. Complainant handed over the bribe money to the accused and he put the same into his left bottom pocket of the coat. Shadow witness signalled the police party by moving hands on his head. Accused was caught redhanded. PW-9 Thakur Dass Chauhan, Executive Engineer was called. Thereafter, hands of accused were washed in a bowl with water. The colour did not change. When a pinch of Sodium Carbonate powder was added to that solution, its colour turned light pink. Light pink coloured solution of bowl was put into a nip and nip was sealed with seal impression "T". Nip was taken into possession vide memo Ext. PW-9/A. Investigating Officer directed the accused to produce the bribe money. He produced the same from the left bottom pocket of his coat. Currency notes were tallied with the numbers noted down in the memo already prepared and the numbers were found to be the same. Currency notes were kept in a Khaki coloured envelope which was put into a cloth parcel and parcel was sealed with three seals of impression "T" and taken into possession vide memo Ext. PW-9/B. Thereafter, Investigating Officer washed the pocket of the coat of the accused with water in a bowl. Its colour did not change. When a pinch of Sodium Carbonate was added to it, its colour changed to light pink. Pocket wash solution was put into a nip and nip was sealed with one seal of impression "T" and was taken into possession vide memo Ext. PW-9/C. Case property was taken into possession. It was deposited with the Malkhana. These were sent to the RFSL Gutkar vide RC Ext. PW- 3/B. Competent authority accorded sanction to launch prosecution against the accused vide Ext. PW-2/A. The Forensic Science Laboratory after examination of the articles submitted its report Ext. PW-15/C. Investigation was completed. Challan was put up in the Court after completing all the codal formalities..

(3.) Prosecution has examined as many as 15 witnesses to prove its case against the accused. Accused was also examined under Section 313 CrPC. He pleaded innocence and stated that the witnesses have deposed falsely against him at the instance of the police. Accused was convicted as noticed herein above. Hence, this appeal.