SATISH KUMAR SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard the parties through video conferencing.

(2.) This Criminal Miscellaneous Petition has been filed with a prayer for quashing the entire criminal proceeding including the Order dated 30.09.2019 taking cognizance against the petitioner for the offences punishable under Section 120 B, 201, 420, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code and under Section 13 (2) read with Section 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act in R.C. Case No.04(A)/2013- R passed by learned A.J.C.-XVI-cum-Special Judge, C.B.I., Ranchi.

(3.) The brief facts of the case is that the co-accused persons respectively being the member, examination controller-cum-secretary of the Jharkhand Public Service Commission thus public servants along with a private person of M/s. Global Informatics and inter alia the petitioner entered into a criminal conspiracy and in pursuance of the said criminal conspiracy, the public servants in abuse of their respective official positions dishonestly and fraudulently manipulated/allowed to manipulate the merit list, assessment charts of the selection process of lecturers for the 3 universities of Jharkhand through Jharkhand Eligibility Test (JET),2006 to extend undue benefit to their preferred candidates including the petitioner and inter alia dishonestly and fraudulently the petitioner was declared qualified even though the petitioner got marks less than the minimum marks required for the said examination and for this purpose marks in the assessment charts of the petitioner was increased to extend undue favour to the petitioner which facilitated the selection of the petitioner as a lecturer of Psychology. The specific allegation against the petitioner is that the petitioner was declared selected on the basis of 54 marks for his career and 26.5 marks for interview i.e. total 80.5 marks. The Central Forensic Science Laboratory deciphered that the petitioner was initially given 26 marks by one expert which was manipulated to 36 in the Assessment Chart and as such, but for the said manipulation, the petitioner was only entitled to get 78 whereas the minimum marks required was 80 and only because of the said manipulation done in criminal conspiracy with the co-accused public servants the petitioner could succeed in getting selected as a lecturer in Psychology. The co-accused member of Jharkhand Public Service Commission who was the chairman of the interview board in respect of the interview of the petitioner for the said purpose, in criminal conspiracy with the petitioner, did the manipulation. After completion of investigation of the case, the Central Bureau of Investigation submitted charge sheet inter alia finding that the petitioner along with the co-accused persons having committed the offences punishable under Sections 120 B, 201, 420, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code and under Section 13 (2) read with Section 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The learned trial court on perusal of the relevant documents found that offences punishable under Sections 120 B, 201, 420, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code and under Section 13 (2) read with Section 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act is made out inter alia against the petitioner and vide order dated 30.09.2019 took cognizance for the said offences inter alia against the petitioner.