The judgment emphasizes the need for grave suspicion to justify framing charges and proceeding with the trial under Section 227 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

JUDGMENT :

Manish Pitale, J.

By this revision application, the applicant (original accused No.6), has challenged order dated 10/09/2018, passed by the Court of District Judge - 11, Nagpur (Trial Court), whereby application for discharge moved by the applicant herein was rejected.

2. An FIR dated 30/04/2017, was registered in the present case against the applicant and other accused persons for offences under Sections 13(1)(c),13(1)(d) R/w 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act,1988 and Sections 109,420 R/w 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. The incident in respect of which the FIR was registered had allegedly taken place on 20/06/2006. Some of the accused persons were officials of the Vidharbha Irrigation Development Corporation while the others, like the applicant herein were the employees of a private entity called "M/s Hindustan Construction Company Limited".

3. The case of the prosecution against the accused persons in the present case was that they had all entered into a criminal conspiracy to cause undue losses to the State Government and that the accused who were officials of the Vidharbha Irrigation Development Corporation and employees of the said M/s Hindustan Construction Company Limited i.e. co-accused had hatched the said conspiracy when tenders were being awarded for works in Ghodazari branch canal of the Vidharbha Irrigation Development Corporation. The allegation against the applicant was that at the relevant time, he was working as General Manager (Business Development) with M/s Hindustan Construction Company Limited and that he was party to the activities undertaken by the said company for caterlization along with other bidders, in order to cause illegal loss to the State Government to the tune upto Rs.7.81 Crores.

4. On the basis of investigation conducted by the investigating agency, chargesheet was submitted on 31/07/2018, before the Court below, wherein charges were levelled against the accused persons, including the applicant herein for the aforesaid offences. At this stage, applications were filed by the accused persons, including the applicant herein for discharge, under Section 227 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The application filed by accused Nos.1 to 5 i.e. the officials of the Vidharbha Irrigation Development Corporation was allowed and they were discharged on the ground that proper sanction was not obtained before launching prosecution against them. The said order has been made subject matter of challenge before this Court in separate proceeding, which is said to be pending.

5. The application for discharge filed on behalf of the applicant (Exh.51), was however rejected by the Trial Court by holding that there was sufficient material on record disclosing existence of all required ingredients of alleged offences and of the role of the applicant in hatching conspiracy in question. The said order passed on 10/09/2018, is made subject matter of challenge in the present revision application.

6. Mr. S.P. Dharmadhikari, learned senior counsel appearing with Mr. C.S. Dharmadhikari, learned counsel for the applicant submitted that even if material placed on record by the investigating agency in the form of chargesheet and supporting documents, was to be accepted as it is, no case of suspicion leave alone grave suspicion was raised against the applicant and that, therefore, the Trial Court had committed grave error in rejecting the application filed by the applicant. It was submitted that the only role attributed to the applicant was that he had addressed a communication to the bank requesting for issuance of 3 demand drafts to be submitted with an application on behalf of the said company i.e. M/s Hindustan Construction Company Limited as also for applications being submitted by other bidders. It was submitted that the said letter was issued on the basis of specific written instructions given by accused No.7, who was working as Senior Vice President of M/s Hindustan Construction Company Limited and that since