Case: Syed Ahmed Vs. State Of Karnataka

Nagaraja @ Nagarajegowda (PW1) and his father, Thimmegowda (PW4) are owners of some land. On 7th June, 1993 they had a boundary dispute with their immediate neighbour, Channakeshavegowda which resulted in their being assaulted by him and others. Thimmegowda then lodged a complaint on the same day with the Konanur Police Station in this regard.According to Syed Ahmed (a police officer in the Konanur Police Station), the complaint was inquired into by S.C. Rangasetty (PW7). According to Nagaraja, illegal gratification was demanded by Syed Ahmed to enable him to file a charge-sheet against Channakeshavegowda and others on the complaint by Thimmegowda.The dispute between Thimmegowda and Channakeshavegowda was, however, amicably resolved in a few days time and the settlement entered into between them is Exhibit P.15 in the Trial Court.Unfortunately, on 27th June, 1993 a boundary dispute again arose between Nagaraja and Thimmegowda on the one hand and Channakeshavegowda and others on the other. This resulted in Nagaraja lodging a complaint against Channakeshavegowda in the Konanur Police Station on 27th June, 1993. For inquiring into this complaint, Syed Ahmed allegedly demanded illegal gratification from Nagaraja.Feeling aggrieved by the unlawful demand, Nagaraja lodged a complaint with the Lok Ayukta Police at Hassan on 28th June, 1993. The Lok Ayukta Police decided to trap Syed Ahmed while demanding and accepting illegal gratification from Nagaraja. As per the arrangement for the trap, some currency notes were treated with phenolphthalein powder and upon delivery of these tainted currency notes to Syed Ahmed, his fingers would get smeared with the powder. Thereafter, on washing the powdered fingers with sodium carbonate solution, the resultant wash would turn pink indicating thereby the physical receipt of the tainted currency by Syed Ahmed.Also, as per the arrangements, two independent persons were to accompany Nagaraja to witness the transaction of delivery of the tainted currency notes to Syed Ahmed. The two independent witnesses in the case are Sidheshwara Swamy (PW2) and Keshavamurty (PW6).As per the plan chalked out by the Lok Ayukta Police, Nagaraja went to the Konanur Police Station to hand over the illegal gratification to Syed Ahmed. However, when he reached there, he was told that Syed Ahmed was available at the Inspection Bungalow. Accordingly, Nagaraja and the trap party went to the Inspection Bungalow.At the Inspection Bungalow, the two independent witnesses positioned themselves close to Syedroom. Nagaraja then entered his room and after a brief conversation with Syed Ahmed, he handed over some currency notes to him. Thereafter, Nagaraja exited from the room and gave a pre-determined signal to the trap party who reached Syedroom and washed his hands with sodium carbonate solution which turned pink. This confirmed his physical receipt of the tainted currency notes from Nagaraja.On these broad facts, the prosecution charged Syed Ahmed (a public servant) with demanding and accepting illegal gratification from Nagaraja and thereby committing an offence under Sections 7 and 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (for short, ‘theprosecution examined eight witnesses including Nagaraja (PW1) and the two independent trap witnesses Sidheshwara Swamy (PW2) and Keshavamurty (PW6). In addition, the prosecution also examined Bistappa (PW3) the scribe of the complaint dated 28th June, 1993 to the Lok Ayukta Police; Thimmegowdafather) as PW4; B. Pradeep Kumar (PW5) the Police Inspector of the Lok Ayukta Police, who arranged the trap, prepared the trap mahazar and investigated the case; S.C. Rangasetty (PW7) who dealt with the complaint dated 7th June, 1993 and confirmed the settlement Exhibit P.15. The officer who seized the samples relevant to the trap and sent them to Bangalore for analysis and then received the report was examined as PW8. None of the prosecution witnesses turned hostile.Trial Court judgment:Upon a consideration of the testimony of the witnesses and the documents on record, the Trial Judge by his judgment and order dated 21st July, 2000 concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove its case against Syed Ahmed beyond a reasonable doubt. Accordingly, Syed Ahmed was acquitted of the charges leveled against him.The Trial Judge held that the dispute between Thimmegowda and Channakeshavegowda (of 7th June, 1993) was amicably settled and so there was no occasion for Syed Ahmed to demand any gratification from Nagaraja in connection with that complaint. As far as the other dispute (of 27th June, 1993) is concerned, it was held that Syed Ahmed had no role to play in it since he was not investigating that complaint. There was, therefore, no occasion for Syed Ahmed to demand any gratification from Nagaraja. On the contrary, it was held that Nagaraja had some enmity with Syed Ahmed as a result offailure to return some village utensils, which led to Syed Ahmed taking action againstelder brother Thimmegowda. It was to wreak vengeance on Syed Ahmed because of that event that Nagaraja filed a false complaint against him.The Trial Judge had some reservations about the location of the witnesses when the gratification was said to have been given to Syed Ahmed. The Trial Judge also held that Syedwallet and a Rs.10/- currency note recovered therefrom ought to have been sent for forensic examination. The Trial Judge also noted that there was an inconsistency in the testimony of the witnesses about the dress worn by Syed Ahmed when he is alleged to have taken the illegal gratification. Finally, the Trial Judge held that the failure of the prosecution to produce the complaint dated 27th June, 1993 made by Nagaraja against Channakeshavegowda was significant.Taking all these factors and discrepancies into consideration, the Trial Judge did not accept the version of the prosecution and acquitted Syed Ahmed of the charges framed against him.High Court judgment:On appeal by the State, a learned Single Judge of the High Court of Karnataka by his order dated 25th July, 2006 set aside the judgment and order of the Trial Court and convicted Syed Ahmed for an offence punishable under Sections 7 and 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) of the Act. Syed Ahmed was sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for a period of three months and to pay a fine of Rs.20,000/-, and in default thereof to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of six months.The High Court held that there was no reason to disbelieve Nagaraja, nor was there any reason to disbelieve Sidheshwara Swamy (PW2) the independent witness. It was also held that in view of Section 7(d) of the Act, a public servant who is not in a position to do any favour to a person could also be deemed to commit an offence under the Act if he demands and accepts illegal gratification. As regards the discrepancies pointed out by the Trial Court, the High Court found that they did not dent the veracity of Nagaraja (PW1) or of Sidheshwara Swamy (PW2). Accordingly, the High court reversed the order of acquittal and convicted Syed Ahmed.Feeling aggrieved, Syed Ahmed preferred an appeal to this Court. Statutory provisions:

Court's reasoning:
In our opinion, the discrepancy with regard to the attire of Syed Ahmedthe Rs.10/- currency note and the forensiche wallet are rather minor matters. What is a minor discrepancy? This has been the subject matter of discussion in Abdul Nawaz v. State of West Bengal, 2012 (5) SCALE 357  and Jugendra Singh. After referring to a few earlier decisions of this Court, it was held that a discrepancy would be minor if it did not affect the substratum of thecase or impact on the core issue. In such an event, the minor discrepancy could be ignored.As far as we are concerned, whether the absence of the Rs. 10/- currency note could or could not be explained or why Syedwallet was not sent for forensic examination or whether he was wearing trousers or a lungi at the relevant point of time are matters of minor detail which do not impact on the substratum of thecase. We are required to look at the core issue and at the overall picture of the events that transpired on 28th June, 1993 and not get diverted by minor discrepancies or trivialities.It is while undertaking this exercise that we find from the evidence of the witnesses that there was sufficient evidence of Syed Ahmed demanding illegal gratification from Nagaraja and receiving and accepting it when given by him. On this basis, we find no reason to interfere with the judgment and order under appeal.With regard to the sentence awarded to Syed Ahmed, the High Court has erred in awarding a sentence of only three months rigorous imprisonment. Section 13(2) of the Act prescribes a minimum sentence of one year imprisonment. However, the State has not appealed againstthe quantum ofsentence. Moreover, the incident is of 1993, which is about 19 years ago. Keeping these factors in mind, we do not propose to interfere with the sentenceour opinion, the discrepancy with regard to the attire of Syed Ahmedthe Rs.10/currency note and the forensiche wallet are rather minor matters. What is a minor discrepancy? This has been the subject matter of discussion in Abdul Nawaz v. State of West Bengal, 2012 (5) SCALE 357  and Jugendra Singh. After referring to a few earlier decisions of this Court, it was held that a discrepancy would be minor if it did not affect the substratum of thee or impact on the core issue. In such an event, the minor discrepancy could be ignored.As far as we are concerned, whether the absence of the Rs. 10/currency note could or could not be explained or why Syedt was not sent for forensic examination or whether he was wearing trousers or a lungi at the relevant point of time are matters of minor detail which do not impact on the substratum of the. We are required to look at the core issue and at the overall picture of the events that transpired on 28th June, 1993 and not get diverted by minor discrepancies or trivialities.It is while undertaking this exercise that we find from the evidence of the witnesses that there was sufficient evidence of Syed Ahmed demanding illegal gratification from Nagaraja and receiving and accepting it when given by him. On this basis, we find no reason to interfere with the judgment and order under appeal.With regard to the sentence awarded to Syed Ahmed, the High Court has erred in awarding a sentence of only three months rigorous imprisonment. Section 13(2) of the Act prescribes a minimum sentence of one year imprisonment. However, the State has not appealed againstthe quantum ofsentence. Moreover, the incident is of 1993, which is about 19 years ago. Keeping these factors in mind, we do not propose to interfere with the sentencecannot see relevance of these submissions.we are concerned with is whether Syed Ahmed had demanded illegal gratification from Nagaraja and whether he had received and accepted that illegal gratification.The tainted currency notes given to Syed Ahmed as illegal gratification are material and not the untreated Rs.10/currency note or the wallet in which all the currency notes were kept. These are minor issues that have no real bearing on the controversy onregards settlement of the dispute referred to in the complaint dated 7th June, 1993 in our opinion that would not take away the substance of the issue before us, namely, whether Syed Ahmed demanded and accepted illegal gratification from Nagaraja or not. But, it is submitted that the complaint against Syed Ahmed was motivated. This is traced to an earlier dispute betweenelder brother (also named Thimmegowda) and Syed Ahmed. It appears that sometime in May, 1993 Nagaraja had taken some utensils belonging to the village community for performing the marriage of his younger brother. These utensils were retained by Nagaraja for quite some time. A complaint came to be made against Thimmegowda (PW4) in this regard and at that time, Syed Ahmed assaulted Thimmegowda (elder brother of Nagaraja) for not promptly returning the utensils. Due to this incident, and by way of revenge, Syed Ahmed is said to have been falsely implicated by Nagaraja.We areunable to accept this submission. The basis of the action against Syed Ahmed was not the complaint dated 27th June, 1993 but the complaint dated 28th June, 1993 made by Nagaraja to the Lok Ayukta Police. This complaint is on the record and is marked as Exhibit P.3. In the complaint, it is alleged, that Syed Ahmed had demanded illegal gratification from Nagaraja and it is on a follow up of this complaint that arrangements were made to lay a trap against Syed Ahmed. Learned counsel is, therefore, in error in assuming that action against Syed Ahmed was based on the complaint dated 27th June, 1993. As mentioned above, this is factually notagree with the High Court that in view of Explanation (d) to Section 7 of the Act, the issue whether Syed Ahmed could or could not deliver results (as it were) becomes irrelevant in view of the acceptance of the testimony of Nagaraja (PW1) and Sidheshwara Swamycontention does not appeal to us, particularly in view of the unshaken testimony of Nagaraja (PW1) and the corroborative evidence of the eye witness Sidheshwara Swamy (PW2). This witness was near the window and just outside the room occupied by Syed Ahmed. He refers to some conversation that took place between Syed Ahmed and Nagaraja in a low tone and which he could not hear. Thereafter, this witness specifically states that Syed Ahmed asked Nagaraja if he had brought what he was told to bring. Nagaraja replied in the affirmative and thereupon Nagaraja gave the tainted currency notes to Syed Ahmed, which he accepted. Thereafter, Syed Ahmed kept the tainted currency notes in a purse which was then placed in the pocket of his trousers hung on the wall. There is, therefore, a clear statement of Sidheshwara Swamy (PW2), which has not been shaken in crossexamination, to the effect that there was a demand for some gratification by Syed Ahmed from Nagaraja and that Nagaraja paid some money to Syed Ahmed by way of gratification. The ingredients of Section 13(1)(d) of the Act are fulfilled in this case and have been proved beyond any doubt.