JUDGMENT

FAZAL ALI, J.:— This appeal by special leave is directed against a judgment dated 22/23rd January, 1976 of the Bombay High Court acquitting the respondent of the charges framed against him under Sec. 161, Indian Penal Code and also under Ss. 5 (1) (a) and 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The trial Court after very detailed consideration of the evidence held that the charges under the aforesaid sections had been fully proved and the respondent-accused was accordingly sentenced to undergo two years rigorous imprisonment under Ss. 5 (1) (a) and 5 (2) of the Act and a fine of Rs. 2,000/- was also imposed and in default of payment of fine further six months R. I. was imposed. The High Court in appeal disagreed with the conclusion of the trial Court, allowed the appeal of the accused, and set aside the conviction and sentence imposed on him.

2. We have heard Mr. Jethmalani, counsel for the respondent-accused and Mr. Rana for the appellant and have gone through the entire evidence and the judgment of the High Court.

3. This seems to be a very strange case where truth has been so much polluted that falsehood has taken its place and truth buried under deep debris. This has been possible by a clever police officer like the respondent, who tried to kill two birds with one stone, being seized of an opportunity which came to him through a complaint filed by Pandharinath Shivram Rege (hereinafter referred to as Rege) against his tenant Govind Shantaram Walawalkar (for short, to be referred to as Walawalkar) to the effect that the complainant suspected that his tenant, Walawalkar, was running a distillery. On a report by the police that on searching the premises no trace of distillery was found, presumably an inference could be drawn that the said complaint was false, though the said complaint was yet to be tested in a Court of law in a prosecution under Section 89 of the Bombay Prohibition Act (for facility, to be referred to as Prohibition Act). The police report obviously made Rege extremely nervous for fear of impending prosecution. Rege, as his background would show, was not an ordinary man in the street but a highly educated person who had got a M. Sc. Degree and retired as a Senior Chemist before settling down in his own house called Prapanch. Therefore, being a respectable person he naturally got perturbed by the adverse police report. it was here that the accused, having got an opportunity of his life through his dice, by an ingenious device invited the complainant to offer him bribe by putting him in a tight corner on the one hand, and in an inextricable dilemma on the other.

4. To begin with, the respondent-accused sensing the nervousness of Rege started by showing human sympathy that no harm would come to him, Finding that he had cought Rege in the net, he took undue advantage of Reges helplessness and frustration and played his game by gradually making an offer to extricate him (Rege) if he could pay him a sum of Rs. 2,000/-. The demand was repeated and poor Rege found himself between the devil and the deep sea. These repeated demands of the respondent drove Rege into desperation which took him to P. W. 11, M. S. Khamkar, to whom he narrated his story and requested him to lay a trap in order to catch the accused.

5. Here, before narrating the facts, we might mention a few words about the nature of the approach made by the High Court. Far from probing into the truth and heart of the matter the learned Judge appears to have readily accepted the visibly attractive argument of the counsel for the respondent that by foisting a false charge of bribery on the respondent the complainant displayed a diabolical character in rendering the step taken by the police against Walawalkar nugatory and stalled any further action. This argument was reiterated before us by the counsel with all the force at his command but on closer examination, in our opinion, the argument is completely without sub