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| HC sets aside acquittal of TSO in corruption case | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, July 13: The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court set-aside the acquittal recorded by the Anticorruption Court in year 2010 whereby Abdul Aziz Mirza was acquitted in corruption case.
Justice MA Chowdhary after hearing both the sides observed that it is found that the Trial Court while acquitting the respondent had not taken a pragmatic approach and devised a method to record acquittal of the accused against whom the prosecution had proved its case by leading sufficient, cogent and credible evidence. The minor discrepancies in the case have been relied upon to throw away, an otherwise proved case, against the accused, by the prosecution by leading credible evidence, to have proved the demand of gratification by the accused and receipt of the amount in presence of the witnesses, as such, the prosecution has succeeded to prove its case to bring home the charges against the accused/respondent to have committed criminal misconduct as a public servant, for the commission of offences punishable under Section 5(2) of the PC Act and Section 161 RPC. The Trial Court, for the aforestated reason, had decided the case, vide impugned judgment, on erroneous assumptions, in an arbitrary manner, discarding truthful statements of complainant and the prosecution witnesses.
Justice MA Chowdhary further said that having regard to the aforestated discussions and the observations made hereinabove, the appeal of the appellant-State is allowed and the impugned judgment passed by the Trial Court is set aside. As a result, the respondent/accused is convicted for the commission of offences punishable under Section 5(2) of the PC Act and Section 161 RPC. Since the respondent/accused was alleged to have committed the offence in the year 1997, now at this stage of the case, while appeal is being decided in the year 2023, it is recorded that for this inordinate delay in disposal of the case by the Trial Court in the year 2010 and by this court now, a lenient view has to be taken while imposing sentence of punishment. Though the offences of which respondent has been convicted are punishable with a minimum punishment of one year imprisonment and fine, but for special reasons to be recorded, punishment of imprisonment can be further lowered to six months. Thus for the aforestated reason of delay, the respondent/convict is sentenced to an imprisonment of six months and fine of ?20,000/- for the commission of offences punishable under Sections 5(2) of P.C. Act and Section 161 RPC each. In default of payment of fine, he shall undergo further simple imprisonment of one month.
According to the VOJ case that one Yaar Mohammad S/O Ghulam Hussain resident of Marhote Tehsil Surankote District Poonch, moved a written complaint with the Vigilance Organization Jammu (now ACB) on 24.10.1997 alleging therein that while he was working as a ration dealer for village Marhote in the year 1997, the accused-Abdul Aziz Mirza was holding the post of TSO Surankote and the said officer promised him that he would arrange for his appointment as Class-IV employee in the Food & Supplies Department, in consideration of ?22,000/- as bribe, within a month's time; that on this allurement he borrowed an amount of ?20,000/- from one of his relatives namely, Mohammad Younas and arranged ?2,000/- out of his own pocket and thus paid ?22,000/- to the accused in presence of PW Mushtaq Ahmed on 12.09.1997. It was alleged by the complainant that the accused neither arranged employment for him nor returned money despite having been approached a number of times. On receipt of this complaint, a preliminary enquiry was conducted through SDPO Surankote who found the allegations having been ' prima facie' established and on receipt of his report along with enquiry papers in the office of Commissioner of Vigilance at Srinagar from the office of DIG of Police Poonch Rajouri Range, the approval was accorded for registration of a case, as such, a case was registered vide FIR No.57/1998 for the commission of offences punishable under Sections 5(2) of the PC Act and 161 of RPC, at Police Station, Vigilance Organization Jammu and the investigation was assigned to IO Nazir Ahmed Manhas. (JNF) |
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