Narendra Champaklal Trivedi vs State Of Gujarat

2. The broad essential facts of the prosecution case are that the complainant, Gajendra Jagatsinh Jadeja, was residing in Plot No. 1 in Virbhadranagar Society. As in the City Survey Office record, the name of his grandfather stood recorded in respect of the premises in question, the complainant in order to obtain the property card and the sketch of the same, went to the office of the City Survey Office, Bhavnagar on 11th March, 1994, to submit an application for the aforesaid purpose and he was asked by Mr. Jagani, Clerk in the said office to come on 15th of March, 1994. On the said date, the complainant at about 1.30 p.m. went to the City Survey Office and gave the application to Mr. Jagani, who asked him to hand over the application to Narendra Champaklal Trivedi, the appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 97 of 2012, sitting in the opposite room who told him that it would take a week’s time to prepare the said copies. The complainant made a request to Shri Jagani to expedite the matter as he had to go to meet his father with the copies and Mr. Jagani replied that it would cost him Rs.50/- to get the copies immediately. As the complainant had no money at that time he was asked by Jagani to meet Trivedi and Harjibhai Devjibhai Chauhan, the appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 98/2012 who told him that the copies would be given to him on payment and he could receive the copies between 4.30 to 4.50 p.m. As the appellant had no intention to make the payment, he approached the office of the Anti Corruption Bureau which was situate on the ground floor of his premises and gave a complaint to the Police Inspector. The concerned inspector sought assistance of two panch witnesses who were made to understand the case and thereafter experiment of U.V. Lamp was carried out with the help of anthrecene powder. Thereafter, the complainant produced the currency notes and necessary instructions were given to the complainant as well as to the witnesses. A preliminary part of the panchnama was drawn and signatures of the panchas were taken and thereafter, the complainant, the panchas and the members of the raiding party proceeded to the City Survey Office.

3. As the narration of the prosecution case proceeds, Jagani asked the complainant to meet said Chauhan and pay the money. Being instructed, they went to the room of said Chauhan and he was directed to pay Rs. 7.10 paise as fees to said Trivedi and obtain the property card and sketch. Thereafter, said Chauhan demanded money from the complaint as decided and on being asked whom to hand over the amount, Chauhan said to give it to Trivedi and Trivedi was asked to accept the amount. Thereafter, the complainant took out the money from his left pocket of the shirt and handed over to Trivedi which was accepted by Trivedi by his right hand. He counted the money by both hands and put the same in the left side pocket of his shirt. As pre-decided, the signal was given to the raiding party which rushed to the place of the incident. Thereafter, the experiment of U.V. Lamp was carried out on the fingers of both the hands and palms of Trivedi and pocket also and thereon light blue fluorescent marks were found. Panch witness No. 1 took out the currency notes from Trivedi. There were two ten rupee notes and one five rupee note. On those currency notes, light blue fluorescent marks were found with the numbers mentioned on the first part of the panchnama. On being asked about the rest of the money, Trivedi had said that he had given it to Chauhan. Experiment of U.V. Lamp was made on the hands and pockets of Trivedi and Chauhan and light blue fluorescent marks of anthrecene powder was found. The currency notes were tallied with the numbers mentioned on the first part of the panchnama. From both the accused-appellants, currency notes were recovered, marks of anthrecene powder were found and the second part of the panchnama was prepared. The Investigating Officer carried out further investigation, recorded the panchnama and after obtaining requisite sanction, he laid the chargesheet before the Competent Court on 25th of August 1994.

10. The learned single Judge took note of the facts as regards the presence of the accused appellants in the room, the demand made by the appellant No. 2, Chauhan, in the presence of the Panch witness No. 1, the direction by Chauhan to hand it over to Trivedi which established the consent, the deposition of PW-2 about the involvement and complicity of the appellants in the crime, the absence of enmity between the complainant and the accused persons, the unreproachable aspect of the evidence of the witnesses who stood embedded in their stand, the acceptance and recovery that inspired total credence about the demand and acceptance, and the principle of presumption being attracted, all of which would go a long way to show that the prosecution had proven the case beyond reasonable doubt and further considered the inability of the accused-appellants to rebut the presumption as envisaged under Section 20 of the Act, the unacceptability and farfetchedness of the theory of existence of obligation between the informant and the investigating officer to implicate the accused-appellants in the crime, the failure of the appellants to explain how the amount in question was found from their possession and how anthrecene powder was found on their hands and eventually opined that the cumulative aspect of all the facts and circumstances clearly establish the charges framed against the appellants. Being of this view, the High Court affirmed the judgment of conviction.

18. The learned counsel for the appellant has submitted with immense force that admittedly there has been no demand or acceptance. To bolster the said aspect, he has drawn inspiration from the statement of the complainant in examination-in-chief. The said statement, in our considered opinion, is not to be read out of context. He has clarified as regards the demand and acceptance at various places in his examination and the cross- examination. The shadow witness has clearly stated that there was demand of bribe and giving of the same. Nothing has been brought on record to doubt the presence of the shadow witness. He had given the signal after which the trapping party arrived at the scene and did the needful. All the witnesses have supported the case of the prosecution. The currency notes were recovered from the possession of the appellants. In the lengthy cross- examination nothing has really been elicited to doubt their presence and veracity of the testimony. The appellants in their statement under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure have made an adroit effort to explain their stand but we have no hesitation in stating that they miserably failed to dislodge the presumption. PW-2 has categorically stated that the complainant took out Rs.50/- from his pocket and gave it to the accused appellant as directed. Thus analysed and understood, there remains no shadow of doubt that the accused-appellants had demanded the bribe and accepted the same to provide the survey report. Therefore, the conviction recorded by the learned trial Judge which has been affirmed by the learned single Judge of the High Court, does not warrant any interference.

23. In view of the aforesaid pronouncement of law, where the minimum sentence is provided, we think it would not be at all appropriate to exercise jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution of India to reduce the sentence on the ground of the so-called mitigating factors as that would tantamount to supplanting statutory mandate and further it would amount to ignoring the substantive statutory provision that prescribes minimum sentence for a criminal act relating to demand and acceptance of bribe. The amount may be small but to curb and repress this kind of proclivity the legislature has prescribed the minimum sentence. It should be paramountly borne in mind that corruption at any level does not deserve either sympathy or leniency. In fact, reduction of the sentence would be adding a premium. The law does not so countenance and, rightly so, because corruption corrodes the spine of a nation and in the ultimate eventuality makes the economy sterile.

24. The appeals, being sans substratum, stand dismissed.

May 29, 2012