JUDGMENT :

Hard copy of rejoinder, earlier filed online, is being taken on record.

2. Heard Mr. Ashhar Mustafa, learned counsel for the petitioner, and Mr. Dhurendra Kumar, learned counsel for the State.

3. The petitioner was posted as ‘District Cooperative Officer’ at Khagaria. A complaint was made by one Rishi Kant Singh, that the petitioner demanded a bribe of Rs.20,000/- (Twenty thousand rupees) for supplying copy of voter list of a Block Level Fishery Society. The petitioner thereafter was caught red handed accepting Rs.16,000/-(Sixteen thousand rupees) as bribe money. Vigilance P.S. Case No. 57 of 2011 was instituted and petitioner was sent to judicial custody.

4. Superintendent of Police, Vigilance, sent intimation to the Department in this regard. Whereafter, petitioner was put under suspension. After his release, he joined in the Department, to be put under suspension in contemplation of departmental proceedings. The charge memo, thereafter, was issued to the petitioner on Prapatr-Ka and departmental proceedings commenced vide submission of charge memo dated 26.06.2012.

5. The charge memo contained four charges. Charge No.1 alleged that he had refused to give copy of the voter