Judgment

Raveendran, J.—State has come up in appeal by special leave, against the judgment of acquittal dated 25.11.1997 passed by the Bombay High Court allowing Criminal Appeal No. 92 of 1990 filed by the accused, thereby setting aside the conviction and sentence under the judgment dated 7.2.1990 passed by the Additional Special Judge, Pune, in Special Case No. 1/1987. By the said judgment, the Special Judge had convicted and sentenced the respondent herein to undergo RI for one year in regard to an offence under Section 161 of the I.P.C. and RI for one year for an offence punishable under Section 5(2) read with Section 5(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 (‘the Act’ for short), and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- and in default to suffer further RI for three months, with a direction that both the substantive sentences shall run concurrently.

2. The prosecution case was as under:-

2.1) The respondent was working as the Talathi of village Kodit, District Pune. One Mahadeo Bhimaji Badade (complainant) and his elder brother Baban were the owners of an ancestral field at village Kodit. They had taken a loan from one Krishna Badade and had secured the said land in his favour by