ORDER

Petitioner No. 1 is a Motor Vehicle Inspector. Petitioner No. 2 is the driver of Petitioner No. 1. On 11th March, 2016, the Petitioner No. 1 detained and seized two trucks bearing Registration No. BR-01GA-8430 and JH-12C-5858, while the said two trucks were being driven from Aurangabad to Ara with Stone Chips loaded thereon. Both the trucks were overloaded with the Stone Chips and as a result of overloading, the said trucks were seized and brought to the local police station. The driver of the said truck had met Petitioner No. 1 who told him to talk to his driver, Petitioner No. 2 herein. The Petitioner No. 2 told that in order to get the said trucks released, the driver was required to pay a sum of Rs. 44,000/-. The owner of the said two vehicles did not want to give any bribe to the Petitioners and on 12th March, 2016, he lodged a complaint before the Vigilance P.S. at Patna. Immediately, after receiving the said complaint, the Vigilance Investigation Bureau made a preliminary inquiry with regard to the veracity of the allegation. On being satisfied of the truthfulness of the allegation, a vigilance trap team was formed. The driver of the vehicle was asked to pay Rs. 44,000/- to Petitioner No. 1. He received the said money and handed it over to his driver. Immediately, he was caught red-handed by the Officers constituting vigilance trap. A sum of Rs. 44,000/- was recovered from Petitioner No. 2 Satya Prakash Roy and the said amount being illegal gratification was seized from Petitioner No. 2 under proper seizure list. Thereafter, F.I.R. was lodged by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Vigilance Investigation Bureau against the petitioner. On the basis of the said FIR, Vigilance P.S. Case No. 28 of 2016, dated 12th March, 2016 under Section 7, 8, 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered and the case was entrusted to one Shyam Babu Prasad, Inspector of Police for Investigation. After investigation, police submitted a charge-sheet against the petitioner being C.S. No. 13, dated 18th January, 2018.

2. It is submitted by learned Advocate for the Petitioners that initially the instant Miscellaneous Case was filed for quashing of the order of cognizance, dated 19th January, 2018 on the ground that the informant lodged initial complaint against the Petitioners on some mala fide allegations to wreck vengeance. In support of the first issue, the learned Advocate on behalf of the Petitioners refers to a letter written by the Petitioner No. 1 to the Secretary of the State Transport Commissioner, Bihar on 11th March, 2016 itself that when the above-named trucks were seized on 11th March, 2016, the drivers of the said vehicles threatened him and his driver that they would not spare him and they would take appropriate action against them, as they seized their trucks. Subsequently, however, a charge-sheet was filed, the case was transferred to the learned Special Judge under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the Petitioners filed an application for discharging them on the additional ground that they were exonerated from the departmental proceeding on merit and therefore, the criminal proceeding cannot be continued. However, the learned Special Judge refused to accept the submission made on behalf of the Petitioners and rejected the application for discharging them. The Petitioners filed an Interlocutory Application, bringing the above-mentioned facts on record with a prayer also to set aside the order passed by the learned Special Judge rejecting their application for discharging them and quashing the criminal proceeding.

3. The learned Advocate for the petitioner submits that the Petitioners have filed the instant application mainly on two-fold grounds, i.e., the informant lodged a complaint before the Vigilance Investigation Bureau to wreck vengeance against the Motor Vehicle Inspector, Petitioner No. 1 herein. In order to prove the said fact, the learned Advocate on behalf of the Petitioner