Judgment

KHANNA, J. :- This is an appeal by special leave by Mohandas Lalwani against the judgment of Madhya Pradesh High Court whereby the High Court reversed the judgment of acquittal of the Special Judge Bhopa1 and convicted the accused appellant under Section 165-A Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year. The Executive Engineer, Heavy Electricals Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as HEL), Bhopal invited tenders for construction of four RCC overhead tanks, each of one lakh gallons capacity by a tender notice published on December 23, 1965. Four contractors, including the accused appellant, submitted their tenders. Those tenders were opened on February 1, 1966. It was found that the tender of the appellant, who had stipulated that he would use 18 tons of steel, was of the lowest amount. The other three contractors had stipulated that they would use 24 tons of steel.

2. The case of the prosecution is that on April 9, 1966 PW 1 Shivnarain Wadhwa, Chief Engineer Construction of HEL was present in his office. PW 5 Niranjanlal Shrivastava, Personal Assistant to the Chief Engineer was also present there. A partition divides the office of