Criminal Appeal No. 1864 of 2011. Case: Somabhai Gopalbhai Patel Vs State of Gujarat. Supreme Court (India)

Case NumberCriminal Appeal No. 1864 of 2011
JudgesMadan B. Lokur and C. Nagappan, JJ.
IssuePrevention of Corruption Act, 1988 - Sections 7, 13, 13(1), 13(2), 20; Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) - Section 313
Judgement DateSeptember 24, 2014
CourtSupreme Court (India)

Judgment:

C. Nagappan, J.

  1. This appeal is preferred against the judgment dated 14.2.2011 passed by the learned single Judge of the High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad whereby it has confirmed the judgment of conviction and sentence dated 21.3.1997 passed by the learned Special Judge, Banaskantha at Palanpur in Special Case No. 215 of 1992, wherein the Special Judge had convicted the Appellant-accused for the offence punishable Under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and sentenced him to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment of one year and to pay a fine of Rs. 1000, in default to undergo simple imprisonment for six months and further convicted him Under Section 13(d)(i)(ii)(iii) read with Section 13(2) of the said Act and sentenced him to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for a period of two years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1500, in default to undergo simple imprisonment for six months with stipulation that the sentences would run concurrently.

  2. Briefly the facts are stated thus: PW1 Girishbhai is the son of PW2 Ranchhodbhai and they owned 28 bighas of agricultural land in village Ratanpur. There was a borewell in the said land fitted with 10 HP motor and it was not bailing out sufficient water and hence they planned to replace it with 15 HP motor. In order to submit an application for the said purpose to the Electricity Board, they needed documents like village form No. 7, 12, 8-A, map from revenue record and certificate regarding sufficiency of the water in the borewell, and therefore, PW1 Girishbhai approached the Appellant/accused Somabhai Gopalbhai Patel who was Talati-cum-Mantri at Ratanpur village and requested for issuance of documents and the accused asked PW1 Girishbhai to come with money and meet him in his office at Ratanpur. When PW1 inquired the accused as to how much money he has to bring, the accused told him to pay the amount as per his desire. PW1 Girishbhai lodged Exh.12 complaint in the office of Anti-Corruption Bureau at Palanpur against the accused. The Investigation Officer on receiving the complaint on 20.11.1991 sought assistance of two Panch witnesses who were government servants and made them to understand the case and thereafter experiment of U.V. lamp was carried out with the help of anthracene powder. Thereafter the complainant produced currency notes of Rs. 300 comprising of two notes of Rs. 100 denomination and two notes of Rs. 50 denomination and a preliminary part of Panchnama was drawn and signature of Panchas were taken and anthracene powder was applied to the said notes in the presence of Panch witnesses. PW1 Girishbhai took the said currency notes in his shirt pocket and alongwith PW3 Ismailbhai went in his scooter to the office of the Ratanpur Panchayat. The accused was sitting in his chair in the office and both of them occupied chairs in front of the accused. PW1 Girishbhai told the accused that as per the earlier talk he had come to take the documents and the accused handed over the documents and PW1 Girishbhai asked the accused as to what is the amount he should...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT