JUDGMENT :

The judgment, dated 15.05.2015, in Calendar Case No.1 of 2006 on the file of the Court of Special Judge for SPE and ACB Cases-cum-III Additional District and Sessions Judge, Vijayawada (for short, "the learned Special Judge"), is under challenge in these two Appeals. Criminal Appeal No.474 of 2015 is filed by the appellant, who was the Accused Officer No.1 (AO-1) and Criminal Appeal No.497 of 2015 is filed by the appellant, who was the Accused Officer No.2 (AO-2), in the aforesaid Calendar Case respectively.

2. Both the Appellants, as above, as Accused Officers No.1 and 2, faced joint charges before the learned Special Judge for the offences under Sections 7 and 13(1)(d) R/w. Section 13(2) of the Prevention of the Corruption Act, 1988 (for short, "the PC Act"). The learned Special Judge found both the appellants herein guilty of the charges and convicted and sentenced them.

3. The parties to these Criminal Appeals will hereinafter be referred to as described before the trial Court, for the sake of convenience.

4. The State, represented by Inspector of Police, Anti Corruption Bureau, Eluru Range, Eluru, West Godavari District filed charge sheet pertaining to Crime No.5/ACB-RCT-EWG/2003 of ACB, Eluru Range, Eluru, West Godavari District alleging the offences under Sections 7 and 13(1)(d) R/w. Section 13(2) of the PC Act against the Accused Officers No.1 to 3. The case of the prosecution, in brief, according to the charge sheet averments, is as follows :

(i) AO-1 - Talluri Gilbert Subashan Kumar @ Kumar worked as Revenue Inspector-1 (RI) from 22.11.2002 to 22.07.2003; AO-2 – Chevala Satyanarayana worked as Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO) from 15.11.2002 to 22.07.2003 and AO-3 – Jukunta Narasimhulu worked as Mandal Deputy Surveyor from 04.10.1997 to 22.07.2003 in the Mandal Revenue Office, Nallajerla Mandal, West Godavari District. By virtue of the positions held by them, all the Accused Officers come under the category of "Public Servants" within the meaning of Section 2(c) of the PC Act.

(ii) LW.1 – Chinta Srikrishna Chaitanya is a resident of Nallajerla Village and Mandal. He purchased an extent of Ac.2.43 cents from his villager – Rayudu Dharma Rao in his name and also an extent of Ac.2.21 cents of agricultural land from one Chundru Gandhi of his village in the name of his mother – Chinta Satyavathi in the year 2001. He got the lands registered at Sub-Registrar Office, Ananthapalli. He intended to dig a bore well in the lands of his mother by obtaining a bank loan. Therefore, he applied for Pattedar Passbooks for the aforesaid two bits of lands to MRO, Nallajerla along with the required documents. MRO, Nallajerla signed the applications and sent to the Revenue Inspector on the same day. LW.1 requested the Revenue Inspector (AO-1) to issue pattedar passbooks. Then AO-1 demanded him Rs.1,000/- as bribe. He approached AO-1 frequently and requested him for issuance of the pattedar passbooks but he demanded bribe of Rs.500/- for each pattadar passbook.

(iii) On 18.07.2003, LW.1 approached the MRO (AO-2) and requested him for issuance of pattedar passbooks. On that AO-2 replied that after receiving the report from the AO-1, he would issue the same. On 19.07.2003, LW.1 met AO-1 at his office and asked about the pattedar passbooks and then AO-1 demanded the bribe amount. LW.1 expressed his inability to pay the demanded bribe to AO-1. AO-1 reduced the bribe to Rs.600/- and informed LW.1 that if the said amount is not paid, he will not process for issuance of pattader pass books. LW.1 was not willing to pay the demanded bribe amount, as such he approached the DSP, ACB, Eluru (LW.11) and submitted his report on 21.07.2003 at 12:00 noon and requested DSP, ACB, Eluru to take action against AO-1.

(iv) LW.11 registered the report of LW.1 as a case in Crime No.5/ACB-RCT-EWG/2003 for the aforesaid offences, after due verification and investigated into. He secured the services of LW.1 as decoy and LW.8 – Rongala Venkateswara Rao and LW.9 – Tang