Judgment

SHINGHAL, J. - Respondent Kaliar Koil Subramaniam Ramaswamy, who will hereinafter be referred to as the accused, was working as Inspector in the Regional Transport Office, Kolahapur. His house was searched by Inspector R. K. Shukla (P. W. 164) under a search warrant issued by a Magistrate of the First Class under Section 96 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on May 17, 1964, and a lot of property was recovered from his possession. That led to an investigation into the transactions which were found to have been made by him and the members of his family. While the matter was still under investigation, the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947, hereinafter referred to as the Act, was amended by Amending Act No. 40 of 1964, and the following was inserted as Clause (e) in sub-section (1) of Sec. 5 :-

"(e) if he or any person on his behalf is in possession or has, at any time during the period of his office, been in possession, for which the public servant cannot satisfactorily account, of pecuniary resources or property disproportionate to his known sources of income."

Sub-section (3) of that section was substituted by a new sub-section which does not, however, directly bear on the ca