NAND LAL Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal filed by Shri Nand Lal against the Judgment of the Special Judge (Anti-Corruption Cases), Rajasthan Jaipur, dated 30-6-1975, by which the appellant was convicted under section 161, I. P. C. and section 5 (2) read with section 5 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/- in default of payment of fine to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months on the first count and, on the second count, to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year and to pay a fine of Rs. 1000/- in default of payment of fine to suffer rigorous imprisonment for six months.

(2.) THE incident that lead to the prosecution of the appellant may be stated, in brief, as follows,- on 23rd December, 1969, Heera Lal Meena resident of village Kotdi met the Superintendent of Police, (Anti Corruption Department) Jaipur, and made a report to him that Shri Nand Lal, appellant, a junior engineer in the employee of the Rajasthan State Electricity Board was demanding a sum of Rs. 100/- from the former for grant of an electric connection. Heera Lal was un-willing to pay bribe to the appellant so he requested the Superintendent of Police (A. C. D.) Jaipur to lay a trap and to catch the appellant red-handed soon after the acceptance of the bribe by him. THE Superintendent of Police sent the report to Shri Khem Chand Tejwani, Additional Superintendent of Police, (A. C. D.), Jaipur for necessary action. Shri Khem Chand Tejwani, upon receipt of the written report, recorded the statement of Heera Lal and took ten currency-notes worth Rs. 10/- each from him. THE currency notes were initialed and smeared with Phenolpthlien Powder by Shri Khem Chand Tejwani. THE currency-notes were then returned to Heera Lal with a direction to deliver them to Shri Nand Lal, appellant, in his office at Ringus. Shri Khem Chand Tejwani, thereafter boarded the bus along with Mangal Chand, Sub-Inspector, Chandanpal, Head Constable, Bhanwarlal Literate Constable, Sita Ram and Heera Lal decoy and all of them reached Ringus at 3 P. M. where they came to know that the appellant had gone to Neem-ka-Thana and so the party came back On the next day i. e. on 24th December, 1969, Shri Khem Chand Tejwani received an information from Sitaram that the appellant had came back to Ringus. Shri Khem Chand Tejwani, thereupon, accompanied by all those persons who had gone earlier with him, started from Jaipur for Ringus and reached there at 4 P. M. Shri Khem Chand Tejwani, on reaching Ringus, asked Heera Lal to produce before him initialled currency notes which were already smeared with Phenolpthlien Powder. Heera Lal gave him currency notes and Shri Khem Chand Tejwani smeared them again with more powder and then called for Sita Ram and Surat Singh, Sarpanch, as Motbirs to eye-witness the trap. THE initialled and smeared currency notes were handed over to Heera Lal and the aforesaid two Motbirs were directed to accompany him to the office of the appellant. Heera Lal was further directed by Shri Khem Chand Tejwani, Additional Superintendent of Police to give a signal after the currency notes were received by the appellant as bribe from him. Heera Lal and Surat Singh, Motbir, went to power-house and met the appellant, Heera Lal requested the appellant to give him electric-connection. THE appellant asked Heera Lal and Surat Singh to come to his office. THEre upon both went to the office of the appellant. THE appellant came in the office and demanded a sum of Rs. 100/-as bribe when he was asked by Heera Lal to grant electric-connection to him. Heera Lal gave the appellant the initialled ten currency notes of Rs. 10/- each in the presence of Surat Singh, Motbir, in side the office. THE appellant accepted the money in his hand and put them under the papers which were lying on his table. Heera Lal gave the agreed signal to Shri Khem Chand Tejwani and his trap party by scratching his head. On receiving the agreed signal, Shri Khem Chand Tejwani rushed to the office of the appellant along with his party. After entering the office he disclosed his identity to the appellant and asked the later to produce the currency-notes of Rs. 100/- which he had taken from Heera Lal as bribe. THE appellant, there-upon pointed towards the papers lying on the left side of his table and told that the currency-notes were kept there by Surat Singh, Sarpanch Motbir. Shri Khem Chand Tejwani removed the papers and saw that the currency-notes were lying under them on the table. He picked up the currency-notes and tallied their numbers with the numbers of the currency-notes which he had mentioned in the Memo Ex. P 2. Upon tallying the numbers, it was found that the currency-notes recovered from the table of the appellant were the same currency-notes which were initialled by Shri Khem Chand Tejwani and smeared with Phenolpthlien powder and were given to Heera Lal for delivering them to the appellant, upon demand of illegal gratification. Shri Khem Chand Tejwani then mixed Sodium Carbonate with some water in a glass and dipped therein the hand of the appellant, the colour of the water turned light pink soon after a dip. Shri Khem Chand Tejwani prepared a recovery memo of the currency-notes at the spot and took some other relevant papers into his possession. THE currency notes recovered from the table of the appellant were also sealed in a packet in the presence of the Motbirs. THE Additional Superintendent of police collected other necessary evidence in the case and after obtaining requisite sanction to prosecute the appellant, filed a charge-sheet against the later under section 161, I. P. C. and section 5 (2) read with Section 5 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act in the Court of Special Judge (Anti Corruption Cases), Jaipur.

(3.) THE learned public prosecutor, on the other hand, argued that the prosecution has led conclusive evidence to establish the charge of bribery and mis-conduct against the appellant who was a public servant i. e. junior engineer in Rajasthan State Electric Board and who committed offence while discharging his duties as such public servant. It was further urged by him that it is proved by the prosecution that currency-notes of Rs. 100/- had been accepted by the appellant, and upon such proof being adduced the presumption at once arises under section 4 of the Prevention of Corruption Act which shifts the onus upon the accused to prove that such acceptance was not for the purpose mentioned in section 161, I. P. C. According to the Public Prosecutor, the appellant could not offer any reasonable and probable explanation for acceptance of the currency notes of Rs. 100/- from Heera Lal and so the presumption of law created by section 4 of the Prevention of Corruption Act stands un-rebutted and the trial court committed no error in convicting the appellant on both the aforesaid counts on the basis of the evidence adduced by the prosecution. THE Public Prosecutor further contended that the evidence of Heera Lal and Surat Singh and Sita Ram, Motbirs, does not suffer from any infirmity, as there are no material discrepancies in their statements and as nothing has been brought on the record which may tend to show that these witnesses were inimical to the appellant or bore personal grudge against him on any score. As regards the validity of the sanction for prosecution of the appellant, it was submittey by the public prosecutor that the sanction is not defective or bad in law.