JUDGMENT

Dr. ARIJIT PASAYAT, J

1. Leave granted.

2. Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of a learned Single Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court dealing with Criminal Appeal preferred by appellant No.1-N. Ramakrishnaiah who died during the pedency of the appeal and his legal heirs were brought on record as appellants in this appeal.

3. The factual matrix leading to the conviction of the accused N. Ramakrishnaiah was as follows:

The accused joined government service as a Supervisor on 02.11.1955 in the Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Department. He was promoted as a Deputy Executive Engineer on 02.01.1967 and further promoted as an Executive Engineer on 01.03.1979. He continued to work as an Executive Engineer, Kamareddy of Karimnagar District till he was kept under suspension on 26.05.1986. On reliable information that he had acquired assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, a case was registered on 12.05.1986 and the investigation was taken up. During the course of investigation, search was conducted. The documents found during the search disclosed acquisition of number of assets by the accused in his name and in the name of his dependents. During the check period