The judgment emphasizes the importance of establishing guilt beyond reasonable doubt and the need for consistent and reliable evidence in corruption cases.

JUDGMENT :

Challenge in this Criminal Appeal is to the judgment, dated 03.04.2007, in Calender Case No.33 of 2002, on the file of the Court of Special Judge for SPE and ACB Cases, Nellore (for short, ‘the learned Special Judge’), where under the learned Special Judge found the Accused Officer not guilty of the charges under Sections 7 and 13(2) R/w.13(1)(d) of the Prevention of the Corruption Act, 1988 (for short, ‘the PC Act’) and acquitted him under Section 248(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short, ‘the Cr.P.C’).

2. The parties to this Criminal Appeal will hereinafter be referred to as described before the trial Court, for the sake of convenience.

3. The State, represented by Inspector of Police, Anti Corruption Bureau, Prakasam District, Ongole filed charge sheet against the Accused Officer in Crime No.16/ACB-NPK/2001 alleging the offences under Sections 7 and 13(2) R/w. 13(1)(d) of the PC Act. The case of the prosecution, in brief, according to the charge sheet averments, is as follows:

(i) Sri Vaddella Ramanaiah (AO) worked as Assistant Lineman, Madanur Village, Kothapatnam Mandal, Prakasam District during the period from 03.11.1995 to 26.06.2001 and he is a ‘Public Servant’ within the meaning of Section 2(c) of the PC Act. Sri Billa Vasantha Rao (LW.1) is a resident of Madanur Village, Kothapatnam Mandal, Prakasam District and he belongs to Schedule Caste Community. LW.1 is having thatched house at Madanur village. LW.1 with an intention to apply for power supply connection to his house obtained certificates regarding existence of his house and his caste from Person In-charge, Grama Panchayat, Madanur and from VAO, Madanur respectively. On 08.06.2001, LW.1 approached and handed over the certificates obtained by him to the AO and requested him to provide power connection to his house. LW.1 paid an amount of Rs.900/- to the AO as instructed by him towards Government fee for providing service connection. Subsequently, LW.1 came to know that the fees for Service Connection to SC/ST Category people is only Rs.225/- and as the Assistant Lineman (AO) mislead him and collected Rs.900/- from him, he approached AO on the evening of 20.06.2001 and requested him to provide power connection to his house. Then, the AO demanded LW.1 to pay Rs.600/- as illegal gratification for providing new Service Connection to his house.

LW.1 expressed his inability to pay illegal gratification as he already paid Rs.900/-. Then, the AO informed that they are collecting Rs.1,500/- all together towards fees and for bribe and demanded LW.1 to pay Rs.600/- towards bribe. The AO informed LW.1 that it is not possible to him to provide power connection unless he paid the demanded bribe amount. LW.1 accepted to pay the bribe and went away.

(ii) As LW.1 was not willing to pay the bribe amount to the AO, he approached Inspector of Police, ACB, Ongole (LW.11) on 20.06.2001 at 08:00 p.m. and gave a report against Accused Officer. The DSP, ACB, Nellore (LW.10) registered the report of LW.1 as case in Crime No.16/ACB-NPK/2001 on 21.06.2001 at 14:00 hours and investigated the case.

(iii) Pre-trap proceedings were conducted at the office of Inspector, ACB, Ongole on 21.06.2001 between 02:30 p.m. and 04:00 p.m. in the presence of mediators (LW.7 and LW.8) and others. The DSP, ACB (LW.10) led the raid party consisting of LW.1, LW.7 and LW.8 and other ACB staff to Madanur Village on the evening of 21.06.2001 and waited there for arrival of Accused Officer. The AO came to the hotel of Sri Ch. Srinivasa Rao at about 08:25 p.m. on 21-06-2001 and LW.1 approached him and requested him to provide power supply connection to his house.

Then the AO demanded and accepted the illegal gratification of Rs.600/- from LW.1 for doing official favour of providing new power supply connection to his house. The AO received the bribe amount from LW.1 with his right hand, counted the same with his both hands and kept the amount in his pant’s right side front pocket. On the signal g