Judgment

CHINNAPPA REDDY

( 1 ) ABDUL Rehman Antulay was the Chief Minister of the State of Maharashtra till Jan. 12, 1982. While he was yet holding the office of Chief Minister, one Ramdas Shrinivas Nayak, an erstwhile Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, professing a keen, interest in clean administration and so keeping a watchful eye on centres of power and sources of corruption, filed a complaint against Shri Antulay, in the court of the Metropolitan Magistrate, 28th Court, Esplanade, Bombay charging him with the commission of offences punishable under Ss. 161 and 185 of the Penal Code and S. 5 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The substance of the allegation was that Shri Antulay founded and controlled a number of trusts called by various names, freely and falsely making it appear that the Prime Minister and the Government of Maharashtra were either interested or had sponsored the trusts, collected contributions and donations for the alleged benefit of the Trusts by misuse of his position and power by dispensing favours and holding out threats and thereby placed himself in a position where he could juggle and manipulate a sum of over Rs. 5 crores. The learned Metrop